


Well, Now what are we going to do?

by Rioghna



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Comedy, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:44:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 49,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4650981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rioghna/pseuds/Rioghna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An accident leaves the Torchwood team with a...little problem.  AU post season 2, everyone lives...well, except Owen and he's still only sort of alive.  Originally posted on Teaspoon and An Open Mind and FFnet</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Accident

The explosion threw them all back into a heap against the SUV, the team anyway. The bright glow lit up the abandoned industrial estate on the edge of Merthyr like a Hollywood premiere. For a moment there was a stunned silence.

“Oi, you lot want to get off me? Just because I don’t need to breathe doesn’t mean I want you all piled on me. This isn’t the rugby final you know.”

“Everyone Okay?” Jack asked, picking himself up off the top of the pile of Torchwood bodies. “Ianto?”

“Fine, Sir, just me dignity so no real change there.” Jack offered a hand to his young lover, pulling him up to his feet with a gentle pat.

“Gwen?”

“Alright, just a little…” Ianto offered her a hand up from the puddle she had landed in when the archivist had pushed her down. “Muddy.”

Owen was helping Tosh from under the SUV where he had shoved her when it…whatever had happened.

“Okay Tosh?” Jack asked. Since the incident with his brother, Jack had been a little more solicitous, almost overprotective, of them all. The young Japanese tech was only just recovered from the gunshot wound that had almost ended her life. Owen had barely cleared her for field duty, but they weren’t letting her far from the SUV.

“John?” Jack called cautiously, heading for the spot where the former time agent had been. John had been coming and going, helping them out when it suited him. In this case, a band of assorted aliens with a rudimentary rift device that they were using, popping in like Vikings on a raid, getting what they could and then disappearing. This time they had run into Torchwood. Jack wanted to make sure they didn’t come back. John had set to pull their portal closed with his vortex manipulator. It wasn’t a good idea, it wasn’t even part of the plan, more like something John had come up with as they tried to escape back into the vortex. That was John all over, act first, think later.

Jack walked towards where the explosion had been. His eyes were readjusting to the evening gloom after the brightness. “Tosh, check the 999, make sure we’re not going to be disturbed.” There was nothing, the raiders were gone, probably scattered to atoms when the field collapsed. Then he saw it, the pile of clothes, the red jacket that John clung to the way he clung to his RAF coat though neither man would admit it. 

“John,” he called, worry lacing his voice. He ran forward and pulled up the coat, wincing at the blackened sleeve where his wrist strap had been. 

“Yah, ik ahme,” a small, childish voice lisped up at him urgently. Jack blinked, wondering if he had been hit harder than he thought. 

“Sir?” Ianto called to him, concerned.

Jack looked again at the small blonde toddler in the pile of clothes that had once been John Hart. The child looked up at Jack with big eyes and then burst into tears.

“Owen, I need you. I think we have a… small problem.”

The sound of a child crying brought Ianto, Gwen, and Tosh running over to where Jack was standing.  Owen grabbed the jump kit from the car and followed them.  “Bloody Hell,” he said, though everyone was thinking it.  
   
“Shhhh, not in front of the child,” Gwen said without thought.  
   
“Well that child is, or was, John Hart,” Ianto said.  “Not sure what he is now, though.  Jack?”  
   
“I’ve never seen anything like this.  Owen, we’re going to need to run some tests.”  
   
The child started crying again, looking up at them with wide blue eyes.  “Aw, poor thing,” Gwen said, kneeling down to be closer to him.  “Come here, love.”  She reached for the little boy, but he pulled backwards, crying even harder ,and trying to say something.  
   
“What’s he saying?  Do you know what the language is?” Ianto asked Jack.  The language sounded like it should be familiar or something, but the young archivist couldn’t wrap his head round it.  Jack knelt down and held out his arms a little awkwardly, speaking softly in something like the same language.  The boy tried to move to him, but fell over the clothes still clinging to his tiny body.  Jack grabbed him before he could hit the ground and pulled him up into his arms, addressing him in the same language.  
   
“It isn’t exactly one language and it’s all garbled,” Jack said.  Now that he had the child free of the clothes, he started to put him back down absently but the boy clung to him.  “Owen, can you do a quick scan now, and take a look at his arm.  I think he burned it when the vortex manipulator overloaded, at least I think it overloaded.  Tosh, did you get readings on whatever it was that John did?”  
   
“It’ll take me time, but once we get back to the Hub, I can start the analysis.”  
   
“Ok, Owen, he’s all yours,” Jack said, trying to hand the child over.  
   
“No way, mate,” he said.  The former John Hart squirmed as well, and the dead man backed away.  “You hold, I’ll examine.”  He reached for the toddler but the boy pushed his face into Jack’s coat and tried to get as far away as he could.  “See?”  
   
Jack took the boy’s head in his hand and turned his face towards him.  He said something to him, and then listened to the response and replied.  “John is confused.  He isn’t exactly speaking a language, more like bits and pieces of several. so it’s hard to understand.  He says his head hurts, and his arm.”  
   
“Is he slurring his words, having any dizziness, blurry vision?” Owen asked.  Jack turned to the child and said something.   
   
“No, nothing like that, at least from what he can tell me.  Take a look at his arm and then we will get him back to the Hub for a full examination.”  He turned to the child, and after a few words, John held his arm out reluctantly.  
   
“Ok, Ianto, Gwen, get everything packed up, Tosh, take whatever readings you need, and let’s get back.  I would really like to get this figured out and soon.”  They nodded.  Ianto had already picked up the clothes with a look of distaste and was stowing them away in a bag, while Gwen secured the scene and picked up some odd bits of machinery that had been left over from the explosion.  
   
“Jack, what do you want to do with this then?” Ianto said, holding up the blackened leather strap so similar to his lover’s.   
   
“Best give it here, I’m not sure what went wrong and whether or not it is functional.”  He took the strap which Ianto had wrapped carefully in his handkerchief to keep the soot off his hands.  Jack tucked it carefully in his pocket.  Owen finished his examination, sprayed the wound which caused the boy to let out a string of something that sounded a lot like curses.   Jack reprimanded him absently, as he tried to figure out what to do next.


	2. Practicalities

With some difficulty, they managed to get everyone and everything stowed in the SUV.  There was no child seat and he wouldn’t let go of Jack to allow him to drive, so the leader of Torchwood Three was reduced to sitting in the back seat with a safety belt around the two of them.  Ianto and Owen had argued about who was driving, until Ianto reminded him that his driving license was invalidated by his death and now was really not the time to get stopped.  Tosh was in the middle seat, between Jack and Gwen, who kept looking at John with a cross between shocked and broody.   
At the Hub, Jack finally convinced John to let go as long as he didn’t leave the room, so that Owen could give him a proper examination.  Except for Tosh, who had immediately headed for her computer and the analysis of exactly what had happened, the rest of the team leaned on the chain barricade above autopsy.   
   
“Okay,” Owen began as he looked at the last of the printouts.  “According to all my equipment ,he is a more or less a perfect toddler.  He is three years, six months, and seven days old; temperature is a little lower than normal for a human, but perfectly within range for him.  I compared his blood work, blood gases, and scans with what I have on file for him and they are all within acceptable norms.”  
   
“So why is he a toddler?” Jack asked.  The child that was John Hart was sitting on the autopsy table, with his arm bandaged, wrapped in a blanket Ianto had brought up from their room.  He thought Jack’s scent might keep him comfortable and he had been right.  So far the child had been relatively subdued.  
   
“I haven’t a clue, but at least he is a healthy toddler.  I can find nothing anatomically wrong with him.  I am going to run some brain wave scans, but I want to wait.  For the moment, I prescribe rest, something to eat, oh, and a bath, he’s filthy.”  
   
“Yes, aren’t we all?” Ianto said, looking down at his suit with distaste.   
   
“Okay, Ianto, can you order some food for everyone before you go clean up?”  The younger man nodded.  “Gwen, can you go and sort out some things for John? You know the kind of thing, something to sleep in, shoes, whatever else we will need for him for a day or so until we get him back to normal?”  
   
“I think Mothercare is closed, but I’ll run out to the Asada and see what I can find.  Should do well enough at least for tonight.  If necessary, we can do more tomorrow.”  
   
“Thanks, Gwen.  Tosh…you keep doing what you're doing,” he called out over his shoulder.  The tech looked up at him, nodded, and then returned to her work.  
   
“Owen, you…”  
   
“I know, I know, keep looking,” the medic said, before turning back to the results on his workstation.   
   
“Jack, what about John?” Ianto reminded him, nodding to the boy wrapped in the blanket.  Jack followed his look, then went down and opened his arms to the child that had once been his partner and lover.  The little boy scrambled eagerly into his arms.  The younger man watched, having no idea what must be going through Jack’s mind, and what he could do to help.  

Ianto stopped to make coffee on his way back up from his wash up.  He could see Jack sitting in his office, but what was going through his lover’s mind, he had no idea.  What he did know was that Jack would be ready for more coffee regardless of everything else.  As he opened the office door, the older man was sagged back in his chair attempting to look over the files he needed to review.  From the look on his face, he wasn’t succeeding. 

“All right?” Ianto asked as he came into the room.   
   
“Better now,” Jack answered, smiling.  In his lap, the blanket wrapped bundle that had been John Hart stirred a little, then settled back down.  “I think the painkiller that Owen gave him knocked him out.”  
   
“How are you?” Ianto asked, handing the coffee to him and sitting on the edge of his desk, waiting.  It was never easy to get Jack to open up.  He was accustomed to being strong, keeping a good face on everything.  It was only since his return from his time with the Doctor that he had even tried.  He had come back a different man, and all that they had been through since had taken their relationship from casual to serious.  But Jack still struggled with letting him in.   
   
“I don’t know,” he said honestly.  The other man nodded and waited, sipping his coffee.  Ianto was good at waiting.  It made them a good team, and a good pair.  “What is there to do?  We just don’t know enough right now.”  
   
“Can you tell what he remembers?”  Ianto asked.  His own feelings about the situation were mixed to say the least.  He didn’t hate John Hart with the seething passion he once had, but there was always going to be some part of him that was jealous.  He would always have a part of Jack that Ianto couldn’t.  Even though he knew that Jack was a different person and that their relationship was better, more stable, than what he’d had with the former time agent, still there was something between them.  John was more flamboyant, more outrageous, and they were both from a place so far from Ianto’s experience that he wondered what it was that Jack could see in him.  
   
“Not really, he remembers me, but not why he knows me.  Certainly he has at least some of his adult vocabulary.  What he said to Owen earlier…”  
   
“Yep, got that thanks.  It doesn’t take knowing whatever version of 51st century he’s speaking to understand when someone is getting a bollocking.”  
   
“No, John has always had a…colourful way with words.  I suppose we will just have to see,” he said, but his voice was tired and sad.  “At least he’s settled for one language.”  
   
“At least it's one you speak,” Ianto responded, trying not to think of the nightmare of someone who may or may not have the mind of a child and the inability to communicate; not that John was any better when he could.  
   
“Yes, lucky, but the thing is, it’s the version of standard common on his homeworld.  He never speaks it, ever.  He always hated the place.”  The worry was clear in Jack’s face.  
   
“Do you think that he has gone back to his childhood?   How is that even possible?”  
   
“I just don’t know,” he said, resting his hand on the boy’s head.  He mumbled something and tried to burrow even deeper into Jack’s lap.  “Hand me another blanket, will you?”  Jack said.  Ianto grabbed another one of the blankets that lived in a cupboard and helped him wrap the blessedly still sleeping child.  “He’s cold, he’s always cold.”  
   
“Warmer planet?”  Ianto asked, not often getting this kind of encouragement to ask about what was out there.  
   
“No, it’s colder than Earth actually.  Dark, lots of ice, and that was just the people. John hated it.  He’s more a sun and sand type.  He never went home if he could avoid it.”  
   
“Sounds like you’ve been there.”  Ianto was fishing, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.  Part of him wanted to hear more about Jack’s past, while the other part was afraid of what he would learn about the relationship between the two enigmatic men.  
   
“I did, once.  You have to understand, Ianto, I’m from a little colony world, the absolute back of beyond.  My parents were scientists and pioneers, working to build a new life out on the edge.  When we were partners, John got pressured into going home for his sister’s wedding.  While marriage isn’t really the big deal then that it is now, he’s from a core planet.  His family is important, like aristocracy.  When John asked me to come with him, I thought, sure, meet the family, have a laugh, fancy party…whatever.  It was a disaster.”  
   
“What happened?”  Ianto said, encouraging him to talk.  
   
“His parents were cold.  They didn’t appreciate John bringing home his provincial lover, which may have been the point.  They treated me like I’d just walked in from the farm and didn’t bother to wipe my boots.  They spent the whole two days keeping us apart and parading a whole series of “suitable” partners in front of him.  He was expected to choose a proper mate, someone with the right pedigree, give up the agency, having proved his commitment to public service, and become like them.  As soon as we could, we left.  I don’t think he ever went back.”  The story had taken a lot out of Jack, he was obviously still angry about the treatment, both of himself and of the man who at the time was both his partner and lover.  Ianto decided it was time to change the subject.  The immortal was sitting tense in the chair, one hand gripping his coffee mug as if it had personally offended him, while the other clung to the boy.      
   
“Well, we’re all here now,” he said, letting the subject go.  There would be time for more later, when he was holding Jack in his arms.  That was how Jack usually shared his past, curled up in their bed, both of them safe.  But now there were other things to deal with, things that could actually be solved, like the state of Jack’s shirt.  “The food’s coming and Gwen should be back soon, why don’t you leave him with me and get cleaned up,” he said, not sure why he was volunteering to child mind someone he didn’t willingly spend time with under normal circumstances.  
   
“What if he wakes up?” Jack said, clearly torn between the idea of getting out of his muddy clothes and leaving the child that was once his lover.   
   
“Ok, we’ll both go.  I can hold him while you change and you’ll be right there.”  Jack nodded and handed the bundle to him.  John opened his eye for one sleepy moment, then turned his head into Ianto’s shoulder and went back to sleep. 

The alarm sounded as the cog door rolled back to reveal Gwen loaded down with two large plastic carrier bags.  She dragged them through the door, calling out to the room at large.  “Got everything, I think, at least enough for overnight,” she bubbled, dragging the bags over to the coffee table and starting to unpack.  Jack gave Ianto a look of mingled fascination and sheer terror.  
   
By the time they had made their way down to the main floor she had started to spread things out on the table.  Jack looked at it all in confusion.  Admittedly it had been a while since he had dealt with children, but he didn’t remember them taking this much stuff.  The whole time Gwen kept up a bright running commentary on everything she had purchased and why.  He really hoped that Ianto was keeping track, because he just couldn’t get his head around it.  It was getting overwhelming.  Every now and then a word would penetrate the fog only to be lost in the flow.   
   
Ianto gave his shoulder a squeeze.  “I think we have the picture, Gwen.  Why don’t you call Rhys, we’ve plenty of food coming.  Jack, why don’t you take him down?  I’ll get what we need and join you.”  Jack didn’t need a diagram to recognize his way out.  He fled with John before Gwen had a chance to register their departure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, please comment and those lovely things.
> 
> Oh, for the reference about John's home life, see another story I wrote, called The Fine Line betweel sex and love.


	3. Shower time

He made a brief stop at their room and grabbed his kit and a clean shirt, cursing the lack of a private bath as he did at least a few times a week.  John woke up blearily, but seemed more than content to stay wrapped up in Jack’s arms, at least for the moment.  Once they were in the locker room, Jack set him down on a convenient bench and made sure he was well bundled up for the moment before pulling his braces down his arms.  John was watching him quietly as he started to unfasten his shirt.  It was eerie in a way; John was not usually that quiet unless he was unconscious.   
   
“How’s the head?” he asked, more to fill the emptiness than any expectation of an answer.  
   
“I’ve had worse,” John said.  Jack’s head snapped around.  The language was still that of his 51st century home, and he still had the childish lisp, but at least he was sticking to one language consistently.  “Do you remember?”  
   
“Not really, just a…feeling,” he finished, struggling with words and concepts foreign to his current mental age.   
   
Jack went and knelt at eye level to the boy, blue eyes into blue.  “It’ll be fine, I promise you, we will find a way.”  Looking into those hopeful eyes, Jack hoped he was telling the truth.  He hadn’t a clue how, but he vowed to himself that they wouldn’t stop trying.  John nodded and then threw his small arms around him and buried his face in Jack’s shoulder.  
   
They were still that way when Ianto entered a few minutes later with an arm full of children’s clothes and bath things along with a large package of “training pants”.  
   
“Thought you would be further along than that,” Ianto said mildly, putting his burdens down on the bench next to them.  Jack just looked at him.  He wasn’t sure what was going through the man's head.  The whole situation was difficult on them all, but Ianto and John had their differences with each other.  Now they had to take care of him.  Children’s clothes, nappies for goddess sake, what else?  Jack felt like a deer in the headlights, every time he thought he was okay, something would slam it back home to him, John was a toddler, a child…what the hell… but before he could sink beneath the confusion, Ianto was there, helping him up, telling him to get himself sorted and he would take care of John.  He was an uncle, after all, and he’d helped with the kids, once, before Torchwood.  Jack could provide translation.  
   
Jack explained to John.  The boy was a little cautious but nodded with reluctant agreement.  “Better than the others,” he told Jack, but couldn’t explain why he felt that way.  Ianto slipped out of his jacket and hung in on the hook over the bench before dropping the cufflinks Jack had given him for his birthday in the pocket, rolling up his sleeves and tucking in his tie.  The last thing he needed was to give John Hart a way to strangle him.  Though the man…make that boy, didn’t seem inclined to violence towards him, so far.   
   
Jack finished taking off his shirt and held it up to Ianto for inspection while he was running warm water in the stainless steel utility sink that he had added in the last rebuild of the Hub.  The younger man shook his head dismissively.  
   
“Bin.”  
   
“You sure, couldn’t we?”  
   
“Jack, bin,” he said, pointing to the large can in the corner imperiously.  
   
“Yes sir,” Jack said sarkily.  
   
“Enough of your lip; think of the example you’re setting,” he told him as he tested the water temperature one last time before moving to the reluctant toddler.  Helping the child out of blankets and shirt, he lifted him onto the counter and into the sink.  With a little grumbling about the temperature, only some of which Jack translated, he had the boy settled in the water and was approaching him with baby wash and rag when the splashing broke out.   
   
Ianto cursed in Welsh, regretting now his insistence on getting cleaned up beforehand.  “Jack, I said watch him, not encourage him.”  With a niece and a nephew to his credit, he should have known better.  While John Hart wasn’t precisely a child at the moment, neither was he precisely an adult, and Jack, the big kid he could be sometimes wasn’t like to help at all.   
   
He backed up, avoiding getting splashed by inches while he watched Jack, shirtless and stripped to his boxers splashing back laughing.  They were both smiling, laughing in a carefree way that he had not heard from Jack in a while and John never.  He pulled the stopwatch from his pocket and clicked the button.  He could give them two minutes to play.  He knew they had a limited amount of time before Gwen came looking for them.  She had been reluctant when Ianto told her that he and Jack would handle it all, letting go only when he had explained that John might not be all that comfortable with her seeing him like that and the problems that might cause.  In reality he wasn’t sure if John Hart would mind at all, but Gwen was getting oddly broody and he didn’t want to encourage her.  
   
“What do you know about cleaning up toddlers?” she had shot at him, finally exasperated with his reluctance to grant her point.   
   
Ianto didn’t point out that she had no children either, nor did he jump her about the assumption that two men were incapable of handling a child, never mind a child that was not precisely one thing or another.  Instead, he took a deep breath and gathered the things he thought he would need.  “I’m an uncle,” was his parting shot.  He left her standing open mouthed by the coffee table.   
   
The situation was difficult enough, especially for Jack.  He liked Gwen, but sometimes she presumed too much.  When Jack was gone she had been supportive, but there was always the feeling that she pitied him.  She was pushy and once she got her teeth into something she wouldn’t let it go.  Also, she tended to stick her nose into places it wasn’t welcome.  It had almost amused him when she had walked in on him and Jack.  It was the first time she had been confronted with physical evidence of their relationship.  The next time they had a break, she had wanted all the details.  This time, he was determined to keep her from disturbing Jack.  Pulling his thoughts back to the task at hand, he called time on their water fight.   
   
Having passed a towel to Jack, he told him to clean up before returning to the sink.  Once he was sure the toddler was clean, Ianto pulled the plug and stood him up on the counter.  “Jack, hold on to him.  I suppose we might as well dress him for bed now, save the clothes 'til tomorrow.”  There was a deep resignation in his voice that seemed at odds with the desire to get John dressed and them back upstairs for dinner.  
   
“What is it, Ianto?” he said, picking up John in the towel and bringing him to the bench.   
   
“This,” he said, holding up the pyjamas.  They were purple, that wasn’t the problem, nor were the feet, especially since Jack had said he was cold.  It was the Care Bear logo on the front and the hood, with the little bear ears.   
   
“Oh god no.  No, no, no, no.  John will kill me when he gets back to himself.  He may kill me without.  I would kill me.  What was she thinking?”  
   
“Apparently it was that or My Little Pony,” Ianto said dryly, having had much the same reaction.  “I will go out tomorrow and replace it,” he promised.  Only that and a certain amount of male solidarity would get him anywhere near the baby shop voluntarily.  “Meanwhile, you might want to ask him, errr,” he nodded toward the bathroom stall.  “I mean I am sure he knows, even if he was still a child he would know.”   
   
Jack cut him off and said something to John.  The toddler nodded, and when put on the floor wobbled off toward the stall while they watched to make sure he didn’t fall.  They both breathed a sigh of relief that at least some things would not be required.  The rest was almost anti climatic.  He flat refused the training pants after having them explained.  This time Ianto knew that he was using words that no child that apparent age should know.  After a certain amount of wrangling they managed to get him into tiny pants, all of them trying to ignore the little toy cars printed on.  The pajamas were worse.  For the first time John Hart acted his age, throwing a full blown temper tantrum before Jack whispered something to him.  Whatever it was, he calmed down immediately.  Ianto resolved to ask him later, after dinner. 


	4. What to do with a toddler

“Aww bless, isn’t he precious,” Gwen cried, looking up from where she was helping lay out the food.  
   
Jack looked like he had been slapped. He glared around the room, but everyone else found something more interesting to look at.  It was hard, accepting his ex-lover's current state, not knowing what they were going to do.  Jack was a man of action, and at the moment there was nothing he could actually do without getting up the back of his staff and getting in their way.  All he could do was wait and take care of the man who had been part of his former life for so long.  If nothing else, he would protect John, even if it was just his dignity.  “Not another word, any of you,” he said harshly, looking at Gwen.  
   
“But Jack,” she started.  
   
“No.”  
   
“Tha’s never John Hart, Mate,” Rhys said in shock, oblivious to the undercurrents in the room.  “You’re having one off on me.”  
   
“Afraid not, nice to see you,” Jack said distractedly.  “And that is what I want all of you to remember.  This is John Hart.  He may look like a child, but he doesn’t necessarily think like one, we don’t know.  We don’t know what or when he will remember right now.  We don’t know how much he will remember.  If you can’t treat him with respect, at least don’t make this any more embarrassing than it has to be.  I know it isn’t easy, but let’s leave him his dignity.”  The room was quiet.  Gwen had the good grace to blush and look away from the stormy blue eyes.   
   
“Too right,” Owen said, showing more solidarity than he had been known to show in his life.  “Now if you don’t mind, I need to put this monitor on him, then you lot can get on with dinner.”  There was just a hint of bitterness in the dead man’s voice, but just a little.  He had adapted fairly well, though he neither (nor Jack for that matter) had stopped reaching for something that would bring him back to life completely or end it for good.  
   
Jack nodded and explained quickly to his burden what had happened, at least some of it.  If John understood what was going on, he didn’t ask.  He stood him on the edge of the table with a warning to stay there.  He looked, if anything, younger and more forlorn standing on the large table with his big blue eyes and his Care Bear jimjams, than he had before.  Maybe it was the knowing, knowing what he had been, or who he had been, but Jack was torn inside just looking at him.  A little part of him wondered what it would be if he really was a child, if John could live his life over from the beginning.  Would it be a blessing or curse?  Would he be the same wild, uncontrollable man that he was now?  Ianto’s hand on his arm brought him out of his thoughts and he smiled at the younger man.  
   
Owen had placed the sensor on his temple and was calibrating with his hand scanner when he motioned that it was ok.  John reached out for Jack, a little unsteadily, but the older man managed to gather him up.  Gwen smiled as did Tosh, though careful to conceal it behind the screen of her PDA as Jack settled himself in his chair and John on his lap.  There was just nothing for it; they didn’t exactly have a booster chair for him.  John would just have to bear the indignity for now.  
   
“So, what are we going to do with him for now?”  Gwen asked.  Dinner was nothing more than a pile of empty take away containers on the table and dirty plates.  John had dozed off in Jack’s arms, and he seemed completely unaware of the domestic picture they presented as he absently stroked the boy's hair.  
   
“Suppose we could have him home with us,” Rhys offered uncertainly.  He wasn’t sure what made him offer, but it seemed as good a solution as any.   
   
“No!”  Gwen said sharply, her loud voice causing John to stir restlessly in Jack’s arms.  The older man soothed him almost unconsciously, while his eyes followed Gwen, clearly waiting for her to continue.  “Well, he can’t even speak English now can he?  Not to mention that he won’t let go of Jack.  We can hardly have them both on the settee now can we?”  
   
“I would offer,” Tosh said, not sounding reluctant at all.  “But I don’t have a spare bed.  Besides, Gwen’s right, we can’t communicate, even if we could get him away from Jack.”  
   
“Doesn’t matter,” Ianto said.  “He’ll be staying here with us.”  There was that steely resolve that brooked no resistance.  The young archivist rarely took a hard line, but when he did there was no moving him.  Jack smiled at him with love and gratitude.  It was the only outcome he could think of, but one which, considering his lover’s past difficulties with John, he was reluctant to bring up.  
   
“He can’t,” Gwen said.  “How are the two of you supposed to take care of him?”  She gave a martyred sigh.  “I suppose I could stay and help out.”  The room went dead silent, but it wasn’t Jack that answered her, it was Ianto.  
   
“Gwen, can I speak to you?” he said, voice cold as ice.  “Outside.”  Jack looked at the younger man, but burdened as he was by the sleeping child in his lap, he could do little more than cast a questioning glance toward the younger man.  Ianto answered with a shake of his head and a look that told him he shouldn’t ask until later if at all.  
   
The two of them got up and left the board room, Ianto, polite as ever, holding the door for her to precede him.  Behind them the room was silent.  “Well, anyone have a clue what that is all about?”  Rhys said reaching for a last biscuit from the plate Ianto had brought with the coffee.  There was nothing but a shake of heads all around.   
   
“So, Tosh, how is the analysis going?”  Jack said.  He knew that if nothing else, Tosh’s explanation would fill the silence, and keep him from worrying. 

“Ianto, what do you think…” she started, still confused by his actions.

“The question is, what were you thinking, Gwen, or were you?” His voice, while still quiet, was sharp and angry and his eyes were blue fire. “This situation isn’t about you, or your child bearing issues. It’s about Jack, and John.” 

“I thought you didn’t like John Hart?” Gwen said. It sounded catty and she regretted it at once, but it was already out in the air.

“I don’t care for John Hart as a rule, no. But that is hardly the point at the moment. He and Jack have a history, a long history. Right now, John like this is tearing him apart. Did you think about that? Think about what it is doing to Jack, his former…partner reduced to a child.”

“Jack’s all right, he can deal with anything. What about that space whale last year? Or the Pharm?” she said defensively. She could almost see clear to what he was saying, but at the same time, she wasn’t willing to give in, to concede that she had missed something.

“Is that what you think, Gwen, really? That he can just let it all slide away? I thought better of you. But then what would you know, off at home to play happy families with Rhys and your ‘normal life’? Take my word for it ,he feels it all. It haunts him. That’s why he rarely sleeps, the nightmares are too much. But you never questioned, did you?”

Gwen couldn’t have been more shocked if he had slapped her, not but what she knew she deserved it. She knew she had gone too far. She wasn’t sure what it was that made her push Ianto, knowing what he had been through. She opened her mouth, but didn’t know what she could or should say. Taking a moment, Gwen pulled herself together. She was Torchwood’s second in command after all, she just couldn’t let her emotions get the best of her, at least one of them needed to be thinking straight. “That’s all well and good, Ianto. But what about the practical? You and Jack can’t take care of him by yourselves.”

“Why,” he asked. If anything, Ianto’s eyes looked colder and angrier than before. Gwen couldn’t understand it, surely he must know she was right? “Because you are a woman? He is John Hart, remember that before you start thinking he’s a doll you can play dress up with.” As he got more upset his accent got even thicker, the final syllable coming off with a hard T. 

“You just…” she started automatically, but realized that she didn’t know what she wanted to say. Ianto’s words were starting to sink in. 

“Is it because we’re both men? Do you think that we can’t take care of him? Gwen, I wouldn’t have expected it of you,” Ianto said, his voice had a note of disappointment along with the anger.

Gwen had the good grace to blush. That wasn’t it, she knew it wasn’t, was it? She tried to deny it, to open her mouth and tell him that he was mad, she wasn’t prejudiced like that. But a little voice had woken in the back of her head, questioning her own motives. Did she want to play at being Mam to a baby John, or did she just believe that two men were incapable of taking care of a child? Would she be like this if Rhys offered to babysit or was it that they were…well whatever they were. She knew that their relationship was a good deal more serious that she had once thought, but something inside her didn’t want to admit that they were an actual couple, even when Ianto had moved into the Hub. Pushing all the competing voices back into their own little boxes for later, she turned back to her colleague.

“No, I…Ianto, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. This has been very confusing for everyone… I don’t know…” She looked surprised at her own feelings and Ianto, ever good at reading people, decided to let it go.

“Yes, it has been. I don’t know how Jack is handling it. He may not be, but it hasn’t had time to catch up.”

“I’m sure that he’ll be fine,” she said, turning now to reassuring him. That she knew she could do without sticking her foot back in her mouth. “I’ll help you get him set up if you like,” she asked, her voice making it a question. 

Ianto nodded. One thing about Gwen, she tried to make up, even if he wasn’t entirely sure he had made her understand what she did wrong. But right now he didn’t care. He was tired, bone tired, and he bet Jack was the same, they probably all were. He looked through the glass, Jack was trying to listen to something Tosh was showing them on the monitor, but he could see that he looked tired. John Hart, for his part, had fallen asleep curled in Jack’s lap. He looked cute, Ianto had to admit that. He nodded to Gwen and they headed back into the boardroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and enjoying. I will try to keep up with the posting but I am on countdown for DragonCon, and in the middle of packing, please have patience with me. Also, please keep up the reviews, they make it worth it.


	5. Nightmares

“Ianto,” Jack said sometime later as the young man entered his office. It had taken him and Rhys, with Gwen ‘supervising’, to get the room nominally child proofed and the couch made up with pillows round in case he rolled off. Not that Ianto was worried about the ‘child’ doing the same sort of things that had him childproofing his old apartment for his sister's two, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t get into something else. There was just so much they didn’t know. “Go into the safe, call up AX58644384.”

“Your private box, Jack?” he asked, even as he did what he was asked. The rest of the team didn’t know about his little private stash, things that Eart,h and more particularly Torchwood, wasn’t ready for, weren’t capable of handling, or just things that Jack thought might be useful for a rainy day that needed to be close at hand. The other thing the team didn’t know, that Ianto was trusted with his private access code. He called it up and opened it. 

“Bring me that small box on the left,” he said, leaning forward. “I had forgotten about this, but I think it’ll come in handy, if I have one the right size.” Jack opened it up, pulled out a whole bunch of bits and bobs. Finally he pulled a pair of small devices and a control box about the size of an old beeper. He handed the box back to Ianto, who put it away carefully before giving in to his curiosity.

“What is it?” the young man asked.

“It’s a translation module, 42nd century. I put it away about 75 years ago, the archivist we had then was too close to Torchwood One and I was afraid if they tried to take it apart it would break. Mostly useless, this particular model was designed for communicating with some of the smaller species out there so it should work for John. I’ll get Owen to check in the morning, make sure the neural interface won’t do any more damage.”

“Where is Owen, and Tosh for that matter, I didn’t see them when I came up. Gwen and Rhys are off, I told them I would say their goodbyes.”

“They went back to her place. Owen wanted to compare his findings with her readings. If I didn’t know better, I would think there was something between those two. Who knew that dying would get him to finally notice her. Alone at last,” he said, leaning against the young man’s hip. 

“Almost,” Ianto said, looking significantly down at the bundle sleeping in his lap.

“We could put him in bed, then the Hub is ours.”

“Then the bed is ours, you’re tired and so am I.”

“Yes, but I had to offer.”

“Offer again when we have that translator working,” he promised. “Gwen is panting to babysit.” Jack laughed softly as he stood with the toddler in his arms.

“Can I at least get a massage? I had forgotten what carrying a toddler all day does to your back.”

“Deal,” he said, patting him gently on the shoulder as they left the room. He’d ask about the toddler comment later, probably a lot later. 

Jack woke several hours later feeling much better.  Ianto was still asleep, curled up on his side, his back pressed against Jack, hair tousled in sleep.  He looked so young in his sleep, not much older than John.  Sometimes it made him lonely, to think about this young man who meant so much to him, and the life that would in all likelihood be cut short by their jobs.  Even if it wasn’t, one day, Ianto would leave him, but that day was not today.  Today, Ianto was his partner, his light and his love and that was enough.   
   
He slid carefully out of the bed, slowly pulling his hand from under the young man’s head.  Jack still didn’t sleep a lot, but they had worked it out.  Ianto liked to go to sleep with Jack next to him, but he also liked to wake up with him.  Rather than Jack laying there just to lay there, he would slip out of bed, either before or after his own nap, and spend it catching up on work, handling the paperwork which he found intensely boring and rarely found time for if there was anything else to do.  Sometimes he would go out on a weevil hunt, or track some minor rift activity that didn’t require actually waking someone up.   
   
Jack pulled a pair of loose trousers that Ianto had bought him for wandering around the Hub at night when they started to have an overnight shift.  Jack had been reluctant until Ianto pointed out to him that it was startling for the staff to walk in and find the boss leaning over a computer in just his pants, or worse, nothing.  It brought a smile to his face as he glanced back at his lover’s sleeping form.  Let the young man have his sleep, he thought as he stood, deciding that the first thing to do was check on their young guest.  John had been asleep when they had settled him down in the nest of blankets and pillows on the couch.   
   
Jack admitted, if only to himself in the dark of the night, that he was really concerned about John.  He was keeping up a brave face but what if John was stuck that way, or even if he had to grow up all over again?  If he got his memories back would he go mad, a man in a child’s body?  On the other hand what if he didn’t get his memory back?  Would that be better?  He knew that John hadn’t had the best childhood.  It wasn’t that his parents were particularly cruel, but the culture did not encourage the kind of closeness that Jack had enjoyed with his parents.  Now he was wondering how that was going to affect him now.   
   
Rounding the screen he was surprised to see John awake, sitting up in his bed.  The sight was heartbreaking.  There were tears in the big blue eyes and he was sitting with his legs in their overly cute jimjams drawn tight against his small thin chest.  At Jack’s entrance, he curled even tighter into himself, as if he was afraid, though of what, the universe only knew.   
   
“Hey,” he said, walking over and tousling the young boy’s head.  “I thought I would be the only one up at this hour.”  John just nodded, not looking at him.  Jack sat down next to him, leaving space between, but close enough to reach him if he wanted.  “Bad dreams?” he asked, reaching out to stroke away the tear that had escaped.   
   
John shrugged.  He didn’t know how to explain.  “Pictures?” he said, not sure what to say about it.  
   
“Like flashes of things, only they are things you don’t remember?  They don’t make any sense?”  
   
“Yes, like that,” John said, nodding grateful to be understood but still curled into himself.   
   
“Scary,” Jack said, nodding with understanding.  “So you woke up and didn’t want to go back to sleep.”  John nodded again, staring down at his knees.  The tears were still falling, but he made no sound.  It tore at Jack’s heart.  When he was a child, a nightmare would end with him running to his parent’s room, snuggling down between them in the warm bed.  But John had not been raised that way.  It would never occur to him that there could be comfort.  He doubted that the nannies had encouraged him to come for a cuddle when he was scared, and he certainly couldn’t see the other man’s parents like that.  His planet was positively medieval in their treatment of children.  They discouraged displays of affections, public or private.  In fact, they weren’t all that keen on any expression of emotion.  It would never occur to John to come and seek comfort.  Even when they had become partners, John never sought out Jack for his emotional needs, sexual, yes, but that was as far as it went.  Maybe now was the time to change that.  
   
“We will make this work out.  Tomorrow, if Owen says it’s ok, I’m going to fit you with a translation module.  Then you can at least communicate with the others.”  John nodded, chewing on his lip thoughtfully.  
   
“Will…” he started cautiously, his voice full of enough emotion to break the hardest heart.  “Will I remember everything?” he asked finally.  
   
“I’m not sure,” Jack answered truthfully.  
   
“In my dreams there were things…bad things.  I was doing things.  I’m not sure I want to remember,” he said.  There was very real fear in him.  
   
“Come here,” Jack said, making a place for him under his arm.  The boy looked at him cautiously, obviously unsure what he should do, but the need for comfort overrode early training that he didn’t even remember now.   
   
“Whatever happened, there was a reason.  When you remember, you will know why you were doing those things.  At the moment it is just fragments, all jumbled up.  Some of it may not even be real, so don’t worry about them for now, Okay?”  
   
John didn’t look convinced, but he nodded slowly.   
   
“Now, how would you like to come sleep with us, just in case you have another bad dream?”  The boy looked at him, and he could see hope in the tear-filled eyes.  “Come on, nightmares only come when you are alone.”  Jack stood and started to reach for the boy, but his back reminded him that he couldn’t carry him around all the time.  Instead he offered him his hand.  The boy released his hold on his knees and crept forward to take the offered hand.   
   
The two of them walked around the screen.  Jack motioned for John to be quiet, though it hardly needed saying as quiet as he had been.  He helped the little boy into the bed and under the covers.  Jack watched for a moment, trying to decide whether he should climb back in with them, certainly it would make John happier, when Ianto rolled over and opened one bleary blue eye.  “Go back to sleep, sweetheart,” Jack said quietly as he slid into the bed on the other side of the boy.  It took all of two seconds for the child to snuggle up to Jack as he reached out to put a long arm around his young lover, pulling him close on the other side of the child.   
   
“Nightmares?” Ianto asked as he accepted and moved to cuddle closer.  While he was reserved on the outside, alone, he loved to snuggle.  Jack nodded, trying to adjust both the pillows and the toddler’s elbow in his ribs.  “Well, John got his wish.  He has always wanted to be in bed with the two of us, but somehow, I don’t think this is what he had in mind.”  With that statement, he closed his eyes, and like the young boy, settled immediately back to sleep, while Jack watched over both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the reviews. It's been a rough week and the have definitely helped. Please keep it up.


	6. A little understanding

Ianto woke to find Jack gone.  That wasn’t all that unusual, Jack didn’t require as much sleep as most people, though he had never asked if it was a side effect of his 51st century physiology or his unique condition.  Regardless of what it was, the older man made every effort to join him at the end of the evening, if only for the company.  However, Jack’s absence did not mean he was alone.  Coiled in a tight ball rather like a cat against his side in purple jimjams with a rather clown-creepy bear on the chest, was John Hart.  The blond hair was still covered by the hood with its little ears, but in the partially visible face turned into his ribs, Ianto could almost make out the past of the other man before life or something turned him into the bitter, sarky psychopath he was today… or before today at least.  It didn’t bear thinking about really.  
   
Jack had said he was from a society family, maybe it was like the minister’s children, Ianto mused to himself, the higher up the stronger the rebellion.  Regardless, at the moment he was just a child, a child with a dodgy memory at that.  Probably best really. He wasn’t sure exactly what they would do with a psychotic toddler who knew more ways to kill them than he could imagine, especially with the added danger of a child’s impulse control; not that his impulse control was all that well developed as an adult from what the Welshman could tell, nor from any of the stories he had heard from Jack.  When you added the fact that he had what the other wanted, that which he viewed as rightfully his even, one Jack Harkness, it was probably for the best.  Oh, John had backed off and appeared to have accepted them, but sometimes he wasn’t sure.   
   
As if disturbing thoughts were communicable, he felt the little bundle begin to twist and turn.  Ianto laid a warm hand on his back automatically, as he would for any child, but instead of comforting him, the boy’s eyes flew open, disoriented and fearful.  He shook himself and tried to pull back, eyeing Ianto with suspicion at first, though slowly recognition took over.  Opening his mouth, the toddler let out a string of agitated sounds that he recognized as the language they had been speaking earlier, but it really wasn’t much help with an upset child trying to curl into himself beside him.   
   
Ianto’s first panicked thought was to call Jack but the boy’s obvious distress needed a more immediate response.  Easing himself up slowly, he opened his arms to John.  The boy was crying, ducking his head into his arms as he babbled out another string of incomprehensible syllables.   
   
“Shhhh, it’s all right,” Ianto said, keeping his tone low and soothing, as if he were trying to calm a frightened animal.  Not far off there, he thought, though why he was bothering when there was no way the boy would understand, he didn’t know.  Still at least he was looking at him.  He had stopped speaking and was quietly sniffling behind his hands.  Ianto reached out again, a welcoming gesture well understood by his niece and nephew once, but obviously not too clear to intergalactic psychotic playboy turned toddler from a far distant future and another planet.  Either that or he was just shy.  “Come on then, I don’t bite,” he said, wiggling his fingers in what he hoped the boy would read as an inviting fashion.   
   
That was all the encouragement it took.  Jack had described John’s upbringing as cold, but obviously he still had the same craving for attention that all children have.  He just never seemed to have gotten over it, the young man thought ruefully as the toddler crawled up into his arms, burying his head in Ianto’s shoulder as a fresh round of snotty babble and tears burst forth, wetting his vest and the skin around it.  He held John close, rocking him and whispering comforting nonsense in Welsh the way his father once did to him, when he was young and scared.  It didn’t really matter that neither one could understand what the other said, some things didn’t require words.  
   
After a while the tears turned to snuffles and the wide blue eyes peered shyly up at him, red and puffy, but much calmer than they had been.  “That’s better then,” he said if only because it made him feel better.  He reached for the night table and handed him a tissue, which the boy looked at in confusion 'til Ianto took it from him.  Somehow of all the things he had imagined himself doing, this was definitely so far down the list it had dropped off the bottom.  “Now then,” he said as he tried to remember what came next.  He could try calling Jack, but right at the moment he thought it best to get the boy back to sleep as soon as he could.  “Want a drink?” he asked, miming with his hands as best he could with the toddler still in his lap.  John nodded, then shook his head and turned his head down.   
   
“Yes, no, something else?” he asked confused, reaching to turn the small face back to him.  The boy shook his head again, then reached down and grabbed at his pajama bottoms in a particularly universal way, requiring no translation and had Ianto out of the bed, boy in his arms, like a shot.  While he knew that John could walk, some things weren’t worth taking chances with, especially if he had to clean up afterward.  
   
Ianto had just gotten them back, mission accomplished without mishap, and settled into their bed, complete with drink of water and much adjusting of covering and position, when Jack came in.  “Everything all right?” he asked Ianto, looking down at him and the once again bleary eyed figure next to him.   
   
“Fine, just think he had another nightmare or memory flash.”  
   
“All taken care of ,I see,” he said, smiling as he slid out of the clothes he had obviously put on for some kind of late night call out.   
   
“And you, why didn’t you wake me?”  
   
“It was nothing, minor rift spike.  Thought something small had come through, but turned out it was only a very upset alley cat.  Besides, someone needed to keep an eye on him,” he nodded toward John as he slid into the bed, clad in his tee shirt and boxers in deference to the extra guest.  John immediately reached for him, sleepily murmuring something while not budging from contact with the younger man.  Jack obligingly slid closer, the boy safely cocooned between them.  He whispered something and gently stroked his hair before looking up and smiling softly at his lover.  “No problems then, even without the translator?”  
   
“No, it appears some things are actually universal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, thank you for reading. Despite the board meeting today, I actually have an update. Please keep up the feedback.


	7. Translation

Ianto smiled contentedly as he pulled the last of the neatly packed cartons out of the boot. Coffee supplies, check, office supplies, check, dry cleaning, check, food for the various denizens of the Hub, human and otherwise, check. He wondered briefly if it was time to broach the idea of a second SUV to Jack. Considering all the shopping he had needed to do it would have been much easier if he had not had to use his own car, then there were the situations that required the team to split up, using their own vehicles. It wasn’t as if Gwen’s Saab or Owen’s sports car were really set up for hauling unconscious weevils, and it wasn’t always practical to hide them for later collection. With a sigh at the thought, he started to carry the shopping in. 

Grabbing the carton full of meat bones and whole fish, he carefully pressed his code in. On the whole, he was feeling rather kindly towards weevils in general today. Gwen had been hinting all morning that maybe she should go with him to get some more things for the miniature version of John Hart, and it was the last thing Ianto either wanted or needed. After last night’s pajama debacle he just wasn’t willing to trust her judgment. Only that and a little male solidarity had gotten him into the children’s clothing store today. Fortunately for his sanity, a call out about two rampaging weevils in a rubbish tip on the edge of Splott had sent her and Jack out. Owen was too busy running all kinds of neurological scans on John, trying to figure out if the translation device would do any harm before they tried it on him, and Tosh was buried in trying to sort the technical aspect of what had happened and how to reverse it. That left Jack and Gwen on weevil duty, and him at peace to get on with what he needed to do.

It had been a strange morning over all. He woke early as usual, and carefully eased himself away from Jack and the sleeping boy. By the time he was ready to step into the shower, Jack was there to join him. He assured him that John would sleep, and if he woke up, he would stay where he was. All in all, the shower gave them a chance for some…bonding time. Feeling much better about everything, he had followed Jack back to their room. John was still asleep, just as Jack said, a lump curled up in the middle of the bed, the duvet pulled completely around him. 

He looked peaceful, almost cute even, at least until he was woken up. Blue eyes glared out of a sleepy face. Jack said something to him, a suggestion that he come up with them, he assumed. John’s response sounded a lot like commentary on both of their parentage, individually and together, followed by a sleepy glare as he made a gesture that could easily be interpreted as the 51st Century version of the two fingered salute, and tugged the duvet back over his face. Jack just shrugged. “He never was a morning person,” he said as they made their way out to the main Hub. 

About an hour later, the young man emerged, proving beyond a doubt that John Hart was in there. He walked confidently onto the floor of the Hub, shouting for Jack and wearing nothing but his pants. Ianto had started down ,but Jack had waved him off, with a word about getting him something to eat while he got him into some clothes. Fortunately Gwen had managed a relatively inoffensive pair of dungarees and a tee shirt with some generic cartoon figures, along with socks and trainers. 

When he finished unloading, Ianto checked on the position of the rest of the team. Tosh was easy, sitting at her desk, various screens scrolling data past as she focused on a pile of printouts beside her. Owen was only a little harder, he just followed the sound of voices. The dead medic and the toddler were heads down over something or other, pieces of a puzzle maybe. In spite of no language in common they seemed to have gotten some kind of system together. When Ianto appeared at the top of the walkway, Owen looked up. 

“Oi Teaboy, come take a look at this,” he said, waving the young man down, to all appearances in a good mood. Ianto went down into the autopsy bay, where the two were playing. He saw a puzzle game that had fallen through the rift about 6 years ago, something Jack had identified as a harmless children’s toy, something to teach dexterity. “I was using this thing to test his dexterity and spatial relations skills.”

Ianto gave him a politely disbelieving look, but the doctor insisted. “It was the best I could do without a way of communicating. As near as Tosh and I could figure, the translator won’t do any more damage, but we need Jack back here to set it since he won’t even tell us where the kid is from.”

“It wouldn’t do any good if he did, as we haven’t even found it yet. Besides, no one else can read the settings. So what did you find out?”

“Exactly what I suspected, his dexterity, spatial acuity, and mechanical comprehension are undamaged and well over the age he appears to be. I don’t think he is up to his adult capability, but that’s his current physical age more than anything else, at least I think it is. He probably has a good bit of his adult knowledge; it is his memory that has been affected. I’ll know more when I can talk to him, but tha’s the usual way with amnesia. Not that I know what is usual with this, but…” he left it at that, as the pseudo toddler turned and tugged at his hand, to get him turn around and see what he had done. Ianto decided to leave them to it and get on with feeding the inmates, and possibly ordering lunch for the rest. 

By the time Jack and Gwen had returned with two juvenile delinquent weevils in tow, everything else had been fed, and there was pizza in the board room for them. Ianto had managed, with judicious use of signs, pointing, and finally picking him up and putting him where he needed to be, to get John settled in a straight back chair with a booster seat strapped to it that he had found at the charity shop cheap. There was no point in getting him new, he reasoned, when with any luck he would soon be back to his old and obnoxious self. Jack appeared in the door, much to the delight of both. 

Before Jack could come into the boardroom, Owen stopped him. “As near as I can tell this thing won’t hurt him, but you’re going to have to set it. At least if those parameters you gave me are right.”

“They are.”

“Right then, after you get it set, I’ll need to ask him some questions, see that his brain is functioning properly, or at least as well as it was before. I need to see how widespread the amnesia is.”

“You give me the questions, I’ll ask them, without the translator,” Jack said as he took the unit from him. Owen started to protest but Jack cut him off. “There are a lot of things in his head that you don’t need to know and some that could be downright dangerous. And you wouldn’t know if the answers were correct. Besides, I doubt if he ever knew who the PM is.”

“The only reason you do is he’s on the phone every time something blows up,” Ianto commented, having joined them by the door to speed things along.

“Hey, I’ve known every PM since Cecil, I’ll have you know,” he said back over his shoulder.

“Including Lloyd George?” Ianto asked with just a hint of a smile.

“Especially Lloyd George.”

“Fascinating as this all is,” Ianto said, dragging his attention back from yet another of Jack’s tidbits, he pointed into the boardroom where Tosh and Gwen had taken over trying to hold the attention of their small guest. John Hart, for his part, was shouting something at the two women, not quite audible with the door shut. Red faced and petulant or frustrated with his inability to communicate, he grabbed the cup in front of him and made to throw it at Gwen, when Jack opened the door and shouted something at the boy that pointed more clearly than anything else to his military background. 

Everyone froze in place and Jack took the cup away from him with a few sharp words. The conversation that followed was short and intense but in the end, John nodded and allowed the device to be installed in his ear while the box was hung ‘round his neck. 

“Now, let’s eat,” Jack said, leaning over to make some adjustments to the device. “John, I need you to say something.” The toddler opened his mouth and a word came out. The voice was recognizable as John Hart’,s but it wasn’t English. Jack continued to fiddle with until with an “ahhh,” he stood up.

“Does this mean I finally get something to eat?” the childish version of John Hart grumbled. Tosh and Gwen cheered and even Owen half smiled. Ianto, being a bit more practical, put a plate in front of him with a slice of pizza dissected with precision to the size of the young boy’s hands. If having his food cut for him offended him, John Hart said nothing, opting instead for stuffing a piece in his mouth whole. 

“Everyone where you come from deficient in basic table manners then?” Ianto asked, looking at the chipmunk cheeked child.

“Nothing wrong with my….manners,” the boy garbled around the pizza. “…ing woman wouldn’t give me my …ing food.” The static outtakes in the boy’s speech caused them all to look in askance at Jack, wondering if the device was not working properly.

“Profanity filter,” Jack said, answering the question without needing it asked. “John’s always had a mouth, and face it, from a three year old, that language is a little disturbing.” There was a nod around the table, accompanied by another burst of static from the translator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you reading this and hopefully enjoying. Please push the comment button and tell me how I'm doing.


	8. Night Out

The pizza had been finished and the remains cleared away. John Hart had managed to get most of his inside him rather than on him, much to Ianto’s surprise and secret relief. He had also managed some fairly interesting feats of English interspersed with static upon being given milk to drink. He had asked Jack for something that apparently the translator circuits couldn’t handle, but Jack had put his foot down, explaining that as his body was currently that of a child, he was going to eat like one. Ianto could tell by what he didn’t say that it was getting to him, that and a hint of fear that he would never voice about John Hart being stuck as a child or at least having to grow up all over again, a fear Ianto admitted, if only to himself, that he shared. 

Now Jack was down in the autopsy room with Owen and John Hart, attending to the rest of the neurological testing. While he hadn’t heard anything from down there, he knew this was not easy on anyone. 

“Ianto,” Gwen called up to him where he was standing by the rail contemplating his next task. 

“Yes?” he questioned politely, making his way to the floor for a quick clear up before he went back up to spend some time in the faux tourist office. 

“Do you think there’s going to be anything more this afternoon?”

“Why, Mrs. Copper, got a hot date?”

“Nah, just me and Rhys, probably on the settee watching mindless tele, but I thought I would let him know. What about you? You know, you and Jack should get out more, and I don’t mean huntin’ weevils through the sewers. A proper night out, tha’s what you need.” 

Ianto thought about what she said, and then smiled as an idea came to him. Two birds with one stone, that’s what it was. “You know, Gwen, I think you’re right. Think you and Rhys would mind doing something for me?”

It hadn’t been easy, talking Jack into going out and leaving John with Gwen and Rhys, but it was important. While the others didn’t notice, Ianto knew that Jack needed to get away for at least a little while. In the end it had taken several promises and a reminder that alone time and therefore any real intimate contact would be limited by the presence of a certain small child who wasn’t to get him to agree. He wasn’t sure exactly what arrangements Jack had come to with the child, the conversation had taken place without the translator, but it seemed safe enough when they left. Actually, the boy had been asleep, having complained of a bit of headache. Owen had given him some pain reliever and then they had left him in the charge of Gwen and Rhys. 

Dinner had been wonderful. Ianto was pleased that he had been able to distract Jack for a while. They talked about anything and everything but John Hart and Torchwood. It wasn’t easy, actually, since both their lives and their relationship centred around work, but for once Ianto succeeded in getting Jack to talk about something else, something happy. He talked about his travels with the Doctor and Rose, who Ianto had only seen the once on the screen. Ianto was able to ask questions that normally he would be uncomfortable asking, but it was better than paying attention to the elephant in the Hub. 

With dinner finished, he turned Jack’s thoughts to dessert, and not the kind that could be found in a restaurant. Ianto still kept his flat, not as if he actually used it for anything but storage and the odd occasions when an old friend would call, and needed a place to meet. He tried to convince Jack to come back to his, but in the end, they had settled for a fumble in the front seat of his car. It was actually like being back in Uni again, only with warmth and creativity he discovered that a lot more was possible in a car than he had ever thought back then. 

On the principle of no news is good news, Jack had asked Ianto to join him for a walk along the quay. With his arm around Ianto’s waist, the two men walked along the waterfront. Jack was whistling a Glenn Miller tune while Ianto leaned into the collar of the big wool great coat. The wind blew chilly off the water and he leaned into his lover, taking in the unique scent of Jack, combined with something that he realized with a start was himself. They stood quietly watching the night, just two people alone, like any other lovers out for a stroll. Jack leaned in and kissed him softly. “We should go, you’re getting cold.”

“It’s fine,” he said dismissively, not wanting to go back to the stress and turmoil.

“You’re cold, come on. With any luck, John will be asleep, and once Rhys and Gwen are gone…” he said suggestively, sliding a hand down underneath Ianto’s coat. The young man shivered and smiled.    
“Yeah.”

Jack took his hand, and led him over to the lift, letting themselves in the scenic route to avoid the cog door and the alarm. The plan was brilliant, but as the elevator descended, it became clear that all was not quiet in the Hub. First there was the naked John Hart, streaking across the main Hub, trailing water and soap suds behind him as he called out behind him a string of…something, including several English epithets he had obviously learned or remembered since they left. The rest, Ianto didn’t even hazard a guess. From the hallway he came out of, the sound of Gwen and Rhys, calling for him, before the heavyset Welshman came barrelling through the doorway. By this point, the boy was busy climbing the ladder toward Myfanwy’s cave high in the wall as Rhys slipped on a puddle and went down to his knees with a swear word of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all, for the reading and the comments. Yes, there is comedy, there will also be angst, and lots of it. Please keep reading and keep commenting.


	9. Little Boy's Fear

“What the…”Jack started as he jumped down from the elevator platform. Ianto just shook his head, as the immortal shouted up to the little boy, already past the second level and still climbing. John stopped, but only for a moment, shouting down as he stopped and clung to the ladder. It was at that moment that Myfanwy broke from her nest and flew an agitated circle around the Hub, coming to rest on the rail below the nosey little thing.

“Jack,” Gwen called out, startled. “We didn’t hear… Oh, my God!” Jack ignored her as he began the long climb up the side of the Hub trying not to act agitated. The boy had not climbed any higher and, to the contrary, seemed to have lost the energy to go any further, though he didn’t seem too upset by the large reptile eyeing him from below. Ianto, on the other hand, caught her eye and gave her a glare and a shake of his head. This was the woman who thought she was better capable of caring for a child?

The immortal reached the boy and very carefully edged him around onto his back, waiting 'til the child had locked his legs round his waist, hands around his neck, before climbing more slowly down to the floor. Myfanwy, sensing that the excitement was over, let out a squawk and flew another couple of laps as Ianto tripped the switch on the roof to release her. John was obviously running out of steam, though he kept up a stream of what sounded like complaints, but for all Ianto knew it was a recipe for the 51st Century version of chocolate cookies. Ianto took the forgotten towel out of Rhys’ hands and took the child from Jack to dry him off.

“Jack, Ianto, I am so sorry, I don’t…” She stopped at a look from Jack. Rhys had pulled himself up off the floor and joined Ianto, deciding that it was best if he didn’t get into this discussion.

“What happened?” Jack said, carefully. His tone was cold, enunciation precise in a way that spoke to exactly how upset he was.

“Everything was fine, really. He had a bit of a kip on the couch, then woke up and we watched a bit of a movie and had some Chinese.”

“Seemed fine, like any other lad,” Rhys offered as he grabbed the jimjams from Gwen, and helped Ianto get the now tired boy into them. “We played a bit of that video game Owen left, ate a bit of food, even ate his vegetables, more or less.”

“Ok, I’m still waiting to find out how this ended with him wet, naked, and up a ladder. Well wet and up a ladder anyway,” he said, after a comment from John.

“We were giving him a bath, or rather Rhys was helping him.”

“I minded what you said about him being an adult, figured he wouldn’t want to be seen in his…” Rhys tried, but trailed off.    
“Thanks, Rhys,” Ianto said kindly. At least one of them seemed to be trying to understand, or maybe just succeeding. Or maybe it was a bloke thing.

“Yeah, Cheers. Went fine too, had a bit of fun with the soap bubbles and all, or as well as we could without his translator. We took it off, didn’t know if it was waterproof see? So I gets him out, put him down, and the next minute, Gwen came in, and he was gone like a shot.”

“Okay,” Jack said, closing his eyes briefly. “Go home, we’ll take care of it.” He looked tired suddenly. Ianto and Rhys had managed to get the boy into his jimjams, and he was already lolling from his burst of energy and leaning heavily in Ianto’s arms. Gwen handed him the translator and grabbed Rhys and her coat, not even bothering with a cheery goodnight, she was so anxious to get away. Rhys waved to them as the cog door closed behind them, leaving them alone with a half asleep child.

“Now,” he said, looking at the child sternly. Ianto had fitted the translator back on him with very little effort. “What did you think you were doing?” Ianto was a little surprised and looked down at the seemingly exhausted figure leaning heavily against him. He had expected Jack to be a little gentler with the tired child.

“Jack, do you think this is…” he started, but stopped when he saw the look on his face and just shrugged.

John pulled himself straight and turned around, suddenly looking more angry than tired. “Just having a bit of fun, not that you cared. I was bored and you were too busy going out with your ... You left me just because you wanted a quick …” The boy was standing on his own shouting at Jack. Ianto noticed the static dropouts too. “Why did you have to leave?” There were tears on his cheeks and if anything that seemed to make him angrier, as he wiped the back of his hand down his face.

“Watch your language,” Jack said distractedly and crouched down to the boy’s level. “we just went to have some dinner. John, did you remember something?”

“No, I just…I needed to get out of there, it was too… “ Jack reached out and pulled him into his arms. “Why don’t you want me?” he whispered into the shoulder of Jack’s blue shirt. The immortal shuddered, not sure what to say or how to say it. He was pretty certain that John didn’t mean, what he was saying, or even really understand it, but it made him feel…wrong.

“John,” he said, trying to find the right words.

“John,” Ianto said, coming up to the two of them and reaching out for them. “You’re confused, and that’s all right.” He was picking his words carefully, not completely sure how welcome he would be, with John’s awakiening mind. But the boy seemed to have settled, at least for now. Jack reached out and pulled Ianto into the embrace with them, holding them all together. Ianto could see the conflict and the pain on Jack’s face.

“I don’t know what I am,” John cried, muffled against Jack’s shirt and shoulder. “I see these things, I feel these things, they don’t make any sense. I don’t cry, but I am. Why don’t I cry? Why do I know that I don’t?” The boy was getting more agitated with each word, but at least he was contained.

“It will come back, we’ll find a way to sort it.” Jack looked at Ianto and the younger man could see that he was praying that it was a promise he could keep.

“But you need to tell us,” Ianto said, taking some of the burden. “When you remember something, even if it’s just a flash or an image, tell someone.” Jack nodded, seeing what he was getting at.

“Exactly, I might even be able to help. We’ve known each other a long time, if a memory scares you, maybe I can put some context on it. Okay?” he asked, trying to look him in the eyes. “Will you tell me?” The boy nodded, tears reduced to a snuffling sob.

“Deal, now how about cocoa and bed?” Ianto suggested, releasing the two of them. There was a nod and Jack smiled.

“Can I…” John asked hesitantly, as Ianto moved toward the kitchen. “Can I sleep with you?”

“I don’t see why not,” he answered, starting toward their quarters.

 _Great, cursed to shagging in the showers again_ , Ianto thought irreverently as he followed with the tray of hot chocolate, wondering if somewhere in that confused head he knew exactly what he was doing.


	10. Nightmares

It wasn’t the scream that woke him. In fact, Jack admitted, if he had been faster then no one would have been woken up, but it took a moment to recognize what was happening, and by then the agitation had turned to childish screams of terror. He pulled the boy to him in time to see Ianto’s blue eyes snap open. Jack reached for his lover with his free hand, trying to soothe both of them together. _And isn’t that an interesting mental image,_ he thought to himself as he urged the younger man back to sleep and lifted himself and John Hart out of the bed. They both had more than their fair share of nightmares and other sleep disruptions, the difference was, Ianto needed his sleep a lot more than Jack did. That and the fact that there was less the younger man could do for John Hart now.

With a kiss to the sleepy forehead, he took John, who was quietly sobbing into his shoulder, sucking air and snuffling, away from the sleeping area. After quick consideration, he went around to the other side of the screen, feeling more comfortable where Ianto could find him or at least know where he was should the upset spark his own, none too deeply buried nightmares. For Torchwood, morning always came far too early.

“Now,” he said as he handed the boy a tissue. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“It was a nightmare, just a stupid nightmare,” the boy said, caught between trying for his adult swagger, so much a part of him, yet not remembered, and the childish fears. “It was nothing, a bad dream. Why am I crying?” He scrubbed at his eyes with the tissue in frustration.

“Nightmares are nothing to be ashamed of, especially for you and me. We have both seen too much. But is it a nightmare or a memory?” he asked gently, as he stroked the blond hair. He knew as well or better than most what demons haunted the former time agent. Oh, John was a genius at playing it from a distance, keeping everything far away, but still there were things in his past that would always lurk in his subconscious, even though under normal circumstances he would never admit it.

“I don’t know, I can’t remember,” he said snappishly. Jack shushed him, gesturing for him to keep it down.

“Why don’t you tell me about it?” Jack asked. “I’ve known you a long time, maybe it will make sense to me.”

“I don’t want to,” he said, and for a moment, Jack could see the boy he had been, before it all, before the drugs and the drink and the sex, before the agency, before his family and his culture tried to mould him into something that he could never become. In that moment, Jack wanted to let it go, to just hold him, tell him it would be all right, and lull him back to sleep, but that path was taken long ago, and there was nothing left for it.

“I know you don’t,” he said after a moment, then pulled him up into his lap. It was more comforting than the adult John would ever allow, even when he had nightmares, even when they were… _when you loved him_ , a traitorous voice whispered in his ear. But John had never been one for emotional connection of any sort. “But it might help. Come on, where were you?”

“It was hot, not sure where or…when?” John said, a little confused. But then time travel was much less of an issue than anything else. Jack just nodded and let him continue. “It was dry, everywhere, the air was full of sand. I was laying flat on a…kind of a roof but not a roof, more like a decorative thing, there was another above me, covering me. I had a pulse rifle, the XR87, even though I don’t like it.” He stopped and looked at Jack.

The older man just kept his mouth shut, even though he desperately wanted to say something, but there was nothing he could say, nothing that would make this any better.

“I don’t…why don’t I like it? Why do I even know what it is?” he said, looking at the other man, hoping for something. Jack just held him tighter and after a while he relaxed. “It doesn’t matter, the buildings were all dust coloured, with bright doors and shutters. My hiding place was looking down into a square full of people, all of them dressed up, like a kind of holiday or festival. I was studying the crowd, picking out specific people. I knew I had to shoot in a specific order, specific people in specific places.”

“Do you remember who the people were, or why you were supposed to shoot them?” Jack asked. Something about John’s description was niggling at him, but he had been a conman, not an assassin, and an agent before that. Oh, John was capable of it, he was sure, but he just never cared about anything like that enough to carry out what sounded like a political assassination.

“There was a man there, obviously important, he had a very subtle security detail, but I saw them. The first person I was supposed to shoot was a man behind him, he had a bald head with a kind of head covering. A lot of people were wearing them. Then a small girl, she couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years standard.  I shot her in the shoulder, then through her head into the arm of the important man. He had dark hair and was wearing bright blue, dressed up like the others but of better… quality? I don’t know, and he had trousers tucked into boots. I don’t know who he was, though, just that I had to kill him. After I shot him, I shot another woman through the shoulder, and another man in the hip. Then I waited there for exactly ten minutes and ran. The whole time, I just wanted to run, there was blood everywhere, and people crying. Tell me it wasn’t a memory, tell me it was just a dream,” he begged, looking up, eyes filled with tears.

“I wish I could, but I just don’t know,” Jack told him, pulling him close and kissing the boy on the head. “But I know I don’t remember you being involved in anything like that,” he whispered quietly, trying to give the boy comfort, all the while trying to remember why the scene he had described sounded so familiar, and what he would tell him if he was right.

 

When Ianto woke, he was alone in the bed with their young…well, whatever he was, guest just didn’t seem quite right. He checked the clock by the bedside, which confirmed that it was about the time he usually rose but he couldn’t remember the last time he had woken alone unless Jack had gone on a call that didn’t require him, and usually he woke him long enough to say. Carefully, he untangled himself from the sleeping child and went in search of his lover.

Jack wasn’t sitting up on the other side of the screen where he was usually when he couldn’t sleep. Instead there was no sign of him. Ianto went out into the main body of the Hub, leaving the boy sleeping. The Hub was still shut down in night mode and a quick check showed that Jack was, in fact, still in the base. More confused and concerned, he headed to Jack’s office. There he found evidence that he had at least been there during the night. There was an old journal, a disorganized pile of personal papers and a cup of that roofing tar Jack called coffee when he made it himself coagulating in the mug. _Now, I’m going to have to strip the coffee machine down for a clean again,_ he thought to himself, trying not to let the concern for his lover take hold. Casting a quick glance at the papers, he was torn between his desire to find a clue to Jack’s location and state of mind and curiosity.

While Jack had opened up a great deal, there were large parts of his life that were still a mystery. Not that Jack wouldn’t necessarily tell him, should he ask, but with so much life behind him, Ianto didn’t necessarily know the right questions. Sometimes Jack would ramble, sometimes Ianto would ask about a time, or a Torchwood employee whose file he found, and it had to be enough. Pulling himself back, he realized that at least the journal was from that lorry load of Jack’s personal things and papers that he had locked up carefully in a storage vault on one of the archive levels down below.

He had found them during the rebuild, after the Hub had been destroyed; a room full of stuff with Jack’s name, his journals, all kinds of things. Ianto had just glanced at it, and then locked the door, coming back later over several nights to shift it all down below when no one else was around. Shifting it into the archives, his area where he could keep a watch on it. The young archivist had never been completely sure what led him to do it. Jack was gone with the Doctor without a word, but somehow he couldn’t shake the feeling that he would be back. He had talked about needing answers from his doctor more than once and only Ianto, survivor of Canary Wharf, knew what he meant or at least some of it. That and Ianto didn’t want his colleagues picking at his bones, if Jack wanted them to know, he would say. The loyalty and faith had born fruit as their current relationship showed and he remembered with a great deal of pleasure the pride and joy on Jack’s face when he had shown him and told him no one had been through them, except to repack some of the damaged boxes.

“Even you?” Jack has asked cautiously.

“Even me, Sir,” he had said, his expression blank, afraid that Jack wouldn’t believe him. His response had been …gratifying and Ianto quickly pushed those thoughts away, needing to focus on finding him and not…well other things.

“Storage locker it is, then,” he said aloud to the empty room. But first he decided a quick stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep I am back from DragonCon and except for my lack of a voice, doing pretty well. So I am back to updating. Please enjoy, read, respond and all those sorts of things.


	11. Answers like pulling teeth

It was slightly less than ten minutes later when he stepped through the open door of the storage room with two mugs of industrial strength coffee. As he more or less expected, Jack was sitting in a chair in the corner, head down over an open box, though at the moment he appeared to be just thinking, one large hand resting on his forehead as if he had a headache.

Ianto cleared his throat and Jack’s head came up fast, obviously startled, which wasn’t easy to do with Jack. “Coffee?” he asked mildly, holding out one of the mugs to him.

“Uh, yeah,” Jack said, distracted. “What time is it?”

“About 6:30.”

“Sorry, I got tied up,” he answered lamely. There was something a little off, but Ianto couldn’t pin it down.

“Thought that was my job,” he said instead, usually a good way to bring Jack back around.

“Ah, yes.” The smile was there, but in the dark blue eyes, there was a distance, something that even the thought of a little kinky sex couldn’t bring him back from. Instead he reached out for the cup that his lover was holding.

“Jack, what’re you looking for? Can I help?” Ianto asked.

“It’s…there’s nothing,” he said, though it clearly wasn’t. Ianto just looked at him. “It’s something John said.”

“Does he remember?” he asked instantly. He vaguely remembered Jack reassuring him last night when the boy woke with a nightmare, but he had gone back to sleep almost immediately.

“Oh, his memory didn’t come back, if that’s what you’re asking. But he said something. I just…I need to sort it out myself,” Jack waved vaguely, trying to act as if it wasn’t bothering him, whatever it was.    
“Well, you haven’t found it so far,” Ianto said quietly, reaching out to put an arm around him. “Maybe it’s time you took a break? A little coffee, maybe a shower?” he said, making the invitation clear.

“Yeah, maybe… why don’t you go heat up the water and I’ll be up in a minute.” There was something in Jack’s voice that led him to wonder if he was going to end up taking that shower alone.

Viewed from the outside, the scene in the hub looked almost normal, or what passed for normal, for Torchwood. Ianto looked out over the floor from his position disassembling and cleaning the coffee machine. But there were little signs, if you knew what you were looking for. Owen was in his autopsy bay, clanging around with the young John Hart amusing himself by watching from the gallery rail and asking questions, some silly, some not. Ianto hadn’t been keen, but it kept him out from under foot and his insistence that the boy keep to the rail meant that he was in no danger of loosing a limb to the overzealous walking corpse.

Tosh had come in that morning distracted herself, with a pile of printouts that Owen was helping her carry, along with her laptop and a determined look on her face. Ianto wasn’t even certain she had noticed Jack’s absence until after she got the second round of programs running. Then her only reaction was to look around, see that his door was closed, look up at Ianto, and return to the six or so computer screens in front of her. She seemed to have taken the problem of John Hart’s…er… condition, personally, as if the technology had somehow failed her and she was trying to make up for it.

Gwen was putting the last rather desultory touches on the final report of an incident yesterday with a blowfish in a stolen motor launch in the bay. Apparently, despite their appearances, the species did not necessarily swim all that well. They had ended up fishing the high as a kite creature out of the bay, and Ianto had been left to plant a cover story about BBC filming, but overall it had been a pretty routine situation. That being said, Gwen hated paperwork. Between that and the tension in the room, she was looking around and sighing, obviously hoping something would happen to relieve her boredom. Of course it didn’t help that Jack’s only appearance this morning had been to come out of his office, disappear down into the vaults for a while, and then come back absently requesting coffee and disappearing back into his office. If there was anything that Gwen hated more than paperwork, it was tension around the office that she didn’t know anything about.

Jack was in his office. He had been in his office all morning. He had been in his office all morning with the door shut. That in itself was unusual, Jack had an open door policy and when the door was shut it usually signified either an important phone call that couldn’t be interrupted or paperwork that required his concentration, which not only could be interrupted but he frequently encouraged it. Instead he had been curt in his greeting and almost sharp when he opened the door and requested coffee, retreating immediately after before anyone could say a thing.

Ianto was watching it all from his perch while he pretended to clean the already gleaming section of disassembled coffee maker. Jack had, in fact, joined him in the shower that morning, though it had been a near thing. Even after he was there though, he had been distracted, as if he were only going through the motions, placating his lover while his mind worked on something else. Not that it wasn’t fantastic, Jack at his worst could successfully get a rise from a marble saint, but it was as if he was only doing what was expected. The minute they had finished washing off, he was out of the shower, not even stopping for his post shower visual (and sometimes physical) grope, he said something about being up for coffee in a few and disappeared again, leaving Ianto still holding his towel, a bubble of questions still fighting for which one would come out first.

“Ok, that’s enough,” Gwen said, tossing the file down on her desk. “I’m going to see what Jack’s doing.”

“I wouldn’t,” Tosh said, without even looking up.

“It’s fine, I’m just going to take this to him, and see what he’s doing.” She stood up as Owen came in from the autopsy bay, trailing the little John Hart behind him.

“Fiver on Jack throwing her out in less than five minutes,” Owen said, as he handed a portable game device to the toddler who wandered off to the old settee. “Not you, tea boy, unfair advantage,” he said before Ianto could even open his mouth one way or another. There was something more, under his breath and possibly containing the word ‘shag’ but it didn’t get out, probably because of the ‘child’ present, and Ianto ignored it.

“Two minutes,” Tosh said, still focused on the screen in front of her. “And make it ten.” Ianto, as always, had already pulled the stopwatch from his vest pocket and started the timer out of force of habit.

“Just leave it, Gwen, and close the door behind you on the way out. In fact, since it’s such a boring day, why don’t you just keep going?” Jack’s voice bellowed from the suddenly open and then closed office door. Gwen ducked through and with just a quick look at her co-workers, a blush staining her cheek, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door, calling a quick farewell over her shoulders as the cog door rolled back.

“One minute fifty-seven seconds,” Ianto said. Owen had already been reaching for his wallet as he walked across to Tosh’s workstation.

“What is up with Harkness today, anyway?” Owen said as he handed the technical genius her prize. “Maybe…” he started, looking up at Ianto. He stopped short of the actual suggestion that he go into the office and shag Jack into a better mood, partially because Tosh, without even looking up, smacked him on the arm, not that he could feel it. Then there was the look that Ianto shot him, one that made him wonder exactly what Ianto could do to make a dead man miserable. That he was capable of it, he had no doubt.

Ianto, for his own part was trying to figure out how to get Jack alone to talk. It wasn’t as if they could just leave John Hart alone to fend for himself in the Hub. Gwen had already left and he wasn’t sure he trusted her and Rhys with him again, and certainly not outside the Hub. He was even considering calling his sister and her husband, after all John wasn’t too much younger than Micah and they had experience and a child proof house. _What are you thinking?_ he said to himself. They were civilians, and God only knew what would come out of John Hart’s mouth and with Johnny, he would end up retconning the entire estate. That was assuming that the toddler didn’t kill any of the annoying yobs there, or burn the whole place down. Time to think about this rationally, all he really needed was time to talk to Jack to at least open dialogue with him. He looked down at the remaining Torchwood operatives. How much trouble could they get into taking the boy for Ice cream and maybe to pick up some groceries? The Hub was not exactly set up for the snacking needs of toddlers, though when Owen was alive there wasn’t much difference and Jack would frankly eat anything that was put in front of him, except swede, which for some reason the mere mention of would send him hurtling to the nearest toilet. He kept meaning to ask him about that but knowing wasn’t worth the reaction that asking would get him.

“Tosh, Owen, need your help with something…” he asked.

When they were safely away or as safe as a computer genius and a zombie could be with an adult toddler with an iffy memory and psychotic tendencies, Ianto made two cups of coffee, one as perfect as was possible and one cup of Jack’s preferred industrial strength which, at least if he made it, he knew would taste like something other than professional drain cleaner. Honestly, he was shocked that it hadn’t eaten through his stomach at least once in all these years though that was a discussion for another time. With a cup in each hand, he made his way to Jack’s office and opened the door.

“Gwen, I thought I told you…” he started not even looking up.

“She left,” Ianto said, without preamble and set the coffee next to his boss’s hand.

“Thanks,” he said, glancing briefly up but returned to what he was doing, not encouraging the young man to stay. Ianto ignored him and settled down in the chair opposite to drink his coffee. He noticed what Jack had, a device that he had once described at the 51st Century version of a Kindle, a book reader, only the books on it were a wide selection of history texts. Jack had read through the index and then promptly confiscated it. Even though it was in a language that no one but he and John Hart spoke, (and possibly the Doctor, he supposed) as far as anyone knew, there was always the possibility that someone could find some kind of translator or so Jack had explained to him. Ianto had privately wondered, but as far as he was aware all he had done was store it away. So the question was, what was on it that had prompted this mornings frantic search and his foul or at least distracted mood?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another update. Please enjoy, comment and all those other things.


	12. Talking

It took about ten minutes and half the cup of coffee before Jack looked up at him. “Still here?” he said. There was a lot of tension in that voice, along with something else, something that Ianto was certain held the core of the problem, something Jack didn’t want him knowing.

“Yep,” he answered and took another sip of coffee, apparently unconcerned.

“Don’t you have something you’re supposed to be doing?” he looked out the window overlooking the Hub. “Where’s Tosh? For that matter, where’s John?” he sai,d coming half out of the chair.

“Tosh and Owen took him off for ice cream,” he answered, without moving.

“What?” he shouted, his face going through a series of transformations before he turned to his computer and started through CCTV footage. He relaxed visibly when he saw Tosh and Owen up on the Plass, John sitting with them attacking an ice cream cone. Ianto wasn't certain what the adult version of John Hart would make of ice cream, He was fairly certain he didn't want to know what he was saying.  
"Now Jack, are you going to tell me what is going on or shall I decide to take a few days off, maybe go to Glasgow? I know Archie has been asking for me to come up and sort that archivist of his.”

“You wouldn’t,” he said, turning his chair to face his lover. It took only a little effort for Ianto to keep his face impassive, but he was not about to let Jack shut him out like that. It was a bad precedent to set and their relationship really didn’t need any more difficulties. “It…have I really been that bad?” he said finally, running a hand through his short dark hair.

“Let me see, you were up all night, and then ran off after a rather…short interlude this morning without so much as a word, locked yourself in the office and bit off the head of anyone who came near, not to mention leaving the rest of us to deal with that foul mouthed three year old ex lover of yours. What do you think, Sir?” The final word was a little sharp. 

“But the interlude was at least pleasant, right?” he said, reaching out for him but Ianto backed away quickly. He knew how easy it would be to just let Jack pull him in and forget that he was upset. Jack had any number of ways of making him forget his name much less what ever it was that he was angry about, but it wouldn’t make it any easier later. 

“What’s going on Jack?” he asked, crossing his arms and looking down at the man he loved. “Is it something to do with John Hart, with the nightmare he had last night?” He only vaguely remembered it. “What don’t you want to tell me?” Ianto asked.

“It’s hard…I don’t know anything yet, that’s the problem. I just…” he stopped again.

“Jack, don’t lock me out,” he said, reaching out to lay a hand on Jack’s arm. 

“I want to tell you, but I don’t know anything,” he said, frustrated. “Last night, John had a nightmare, but it wasn’t just a nightmare, it was a memory, or at least parts of it were.”

“Okay,” Ianto said. The situation was no clearer, but he sat down on Jack’s desk and waited for him to continue.

“It was a memory of a mission, one he was on alone that I know nothing about.”

“Could it be from that time?” he asked. Jack had told him about his missing memories, about the fact that even the Doctor had no luck finding them. He had once told him that John was away on a mission at the time and was not only unaware of what had happened but why his memory had been wiped. Maybe John had been wrong or had lied to them; it wouldn’t be the first time. 

“No, I don’t think so, but there is something familiar about what he said. I just…I don’t know…I didn’t want to say anything without knowing more,” he said frustrated. Ianto reached out and pulled him in. Ianto could feel Jack’s tension as he rested against him. They could have stayed that way for the rest of the day, or at least a couple of hours if the alarm had not, with its usual timing, chosen that moment to go off, breaking them apart, and dashing towards various monitors. 

“Rift Spike over…looks like...”

“Just tell me it isn’t anywhere that’s full of tourists, if we have to close down the…”

“Cardiff Castle,” Ianto supplied, knowing how Jack was going to react. The swearing followed almost immediately, and he wished he had set his stopwatch. “The good news is it seems to be a what, not a whom, no life signs.”

“Okay, you know what to do, tell them…I don’t know, what did we use last time?”

“Gas leak, but I don’t think that’ll work, how about…”

“Figure it out on the way. Looks like it’s just you and me.”

“What about Tosh and Owen?” he asked as he checked the dimensions against the containment box he knew was in the SUV and grabbed Jack’s coat.

“You call the Castle, I’ll call the crew, looks like they are babysitting a little longer than you had planned.”

Tosh answered her comm and accepted the news graciously, which was probably why Jack had called her and not Owen. So far it everything was fine, though the woman behind the counter had been a little startled when the translator gave off those bursts of static. She had passed it off as a high tech hearing aid, and with John’s big blue eyes, it earned him a “bless,” and an extra large ice cream. “Needs to keep his energy up, at that age,” the woman had told her. She wanted to ask exactly what for, besides running them ragged but what do you say? Tosh smiled, took her own smaller treat and joined them outside where John was amusing himself chasing pigeons in the Plass.

“Do you think he remembers anything more?” she asked as she sat down next to Owen.

“I don’t think he wants to, at least not now. As more things start to come back, it might be a problem. I wouldn’t want to remember shagging someone only to find I didn’t have the body for it anymore. Oh, wait, I don’t.”

“I’m serious Owen,” she said, stretching his name that little bit, a warning that in life he had never paid attention to.

“I don’t know, that’s the truth, but why would he? Think about it, right now he has food, shelter, and Jack’s attention, even if it isn’t the kind of attention he would want if he had his memory. It’s simpler isn’t it? And at least he has people who care about him. I mean, it’s pretty close to perfect, isn’t it?”

“I suppose, but what about his family? Somewhere there must be someone who misses him?”

“I don’t get the impression that there are a lot of those around, do you? No matter how many times Jack tells him to bugger off, he still comes back. Ianto’s made it clear that he isn’t sharing, and as much as he talks, I don’t think Jack’ll do anything to jeopardize that. But he still comes back, helps out, mouths off, and eventually wanders away.”

Tosh was sitting there in shock. It wasn’t like Owen to talk about Jack and Ianto’s relationship except to take the mickey. Now she looked at him, just sitting with her, watching John try to manage the large ice cream while playing a game which only he knew the rules to. Every now and again he would hint, but Owen had never been inclined to talk about his own family, except to mention his mother in vaguely derogatory terms. She could find the information of course, hack his file or even just ask Ianto, but that would be wrong, a violation of the kind of don’t ask, don’t tell policy that Torchwood employees had always had about one another. You didn’t ask where someone came from or why, for the most part you didn’t want the answers. 

Of course like many unwritten Torchwood rules, it had only taken two week after Jack disappeared for Gwen to gather them all together for a “team building” evening that had involved them getting legless and eating pizza in the Hub for her to ask one of her questions. “So how did you all come to Torchwood?” It hadn’t ended the way she wanted, unless with a room full of depressed colleagues. Ianto had wandered off quickly, saying that they knew his story and Owen had taken great relish in telling her how his completely normal life had been disrupted by finding out about aliens. After that, her own story had almost seemed anticlimactic. At least Owen had not teased her about being a jailbird and Gwen the next morning had been a touch green. They all pretended that they remembered nothing and it had been a busy day which made it easier. 

“Oi, back here, half pint,” Owen called out as John took off chasing something that caught his eye. For a dead man, he was right fast on his feet, if he did say so himself, and he did. It didn’t really matter, she thought, that they would have him a little longer. It was nice, almost normal, watching Owen chase John who had decided the whole thing was good fun. The ice cream was long gone, John being at least for the moment a child, though come to it, he seemed to have Jack’s ability to scarf a meal without pausing for breath or losing the thread of the story he was telling. She wondered where that came from, was it a future thing, or something they had learned when they were partners of whatever sort. Some things Jack was still secretive about. 

Looking up at the sky critically, she decided it was time to gather them up and go back inside. Not only was the afternoon getting on, but with it were gathering storms. Jack and Ianto were going to be out for a bit, no point in the rest of them getting wet. “Come on you two, time to go in.” She thought that just for a moment there were two disappointed faces staring up at her, before Owen grabbed John and tugged him towards the lift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this, and hopefully enjoying. Please comment and all those lovely things, it keeps me going, especially now when I am recovering from not quite con crud.


	13. Trouble

If he wasn’t aware that something had gone wrong when he stepped back onto the floor of the Hub, having dropped off what Jack had assured him was nothing more than a 23rd Century alien version of an ipod, though rather than music it played a sort of patterned light wave symphony, the bang of the door to Jack’s office would have been a dead giveaway. The reverberation was loud enough to rattle the windows and send little John Hart scrambling for a hiding place. Tosh was looking a little shocked as John slowly emerged from under her chair.

“So, I should make coffee then?” Ianto said mildly.

“Yeah mate, thought you straightened him?” Owen shot back from the doorway to his realm.

“What happened to ‘unstraighten’ him?” Ianto asked with just a bit of edge. Jack’s mood had been good, or as good as it was going to get considering the difficult situation, but it was really not in his job description to deal with it, and he didn’t like Owen’s taking advantage of their relationship like that.

“Wasn’t you, Ianto, or him either,” she said, nodding in Owen’s general direction. “No one here did anything. UNIT called.”

That was all it took, Ianto went straight to the coffee machine as Owen disappeared like a rat down its hole. On the best day Jack considered UNIT a nuisance, though his relationship with some members of the organization ranged from age long friendships to an almost pathological dislike. But if it had been one of those Tosh would have said. Jack wasn’t one to hold back. That indicated the organization et al, which meant the bane of Jack’s existence, bureaucracy. To say Jack didn’t care for the minutiae of paperwork, reports, and endless meetings was to characterize several hundred weevils out for a rampage down Lloyd George of a Friday night after a rugby final as a spot of bother. It wasn’t the ones that just did their jobs that bothered him either, mind, otherwise the two of them wouldn’t have lasted this long. It was those for whom the mechanics of the work were more important than getting the job done that drove his lover up the wall. He hadn’t actually murdered one yet but the most self important of bureaucrats also had the self preservation instincts of sewer rats, they never came in person and were carefully absent when Jack had to show up for a meeting.

With a fresh cup of industrial strength coffee and some chocolate biscuits he had been saving for a day just like this, he started toward the office.

Jack was just slamming down the phone as if it had personally insulted his mother and Ianto said a brief thank you to the manufacturer that it held. He had half expected the instrument to shatter and the last time it had taken over a week to reprogram a new one.

“Something exciting happening then,” he asked lightly, the sibilance on his g’s the only sign that anything was wrong.

“Damn bureaucrats,” Jack replied, taking the cup with an absent caress to the back of Ianto’s hand as he put the biscuits down.

“What did they want this time?” he asked, fairly sure that whatever it was would be either dangerous or inconvenient, or more probably both. Especially since anything that had Jack that angry meant a meeting or possibly a visit, neither of which was really a good idea considering the circumstances. _Everything in time_ , he thought, first he had to find out exactly what it was they wanted. Jack hadn’t said anything else, merely sat there drinking his coffee and staring into the distance. “Jack,” Ianto asked, as he sat down on the edge of the desk in front of him. The blue eyes that met his were calmer than they had been but not thrilled nonetheless.

“They want you and me down there tomorrow, that base outside of London. That’s where they took that Vrakian fighter.”

“The one you told them to bury in the darkest hole they could find, since we didn’t have the room to store it? They took it to a location within the blast radius of London?” he asked in shock.

“Oh, it gets better, they have some scientist and a couple of generals from Geneva who say they’re going to crack it open tomorrow unless we can come down there and explain to their satisfaction why they shouldn’t.”

Ianto almost relaxed. “You put a deadlock seal on that hatch, though. I thought…”

“Which is why they are planning to cut their way through the exhaust port on the aft side.”

“”It’ll blow up half the country,” Ianto said, glad he was sitting or he would have fallen down, and where would his dignity be then?

“At least. I would almost let them if they were only going to blow themselves to hell, but…” he trailed off with a shrug.

“Not on your watch,” his lover supplied.

“Exactly, and besides the deaths of innocent people, the Doctor would never forgive me.”

“Surely some of your contacts could help,” he asked, already trying to work out a solution that did not involve going to London tomorrow, even if there would be a certain satisfaction in watching Jack take those arrogant fools apart.

“No, they planned this really well. Sir Alaister and Brigadier Bambara are both on the other side of the world at some kind of hush hush meeting, with no communication in or out. Frobisher lodged a complaint but that won’t be heard til the PM and the MoD get back from a NATO conference in America next week and the highest ranking member of UNIT in the country at the moment greenlighted this thing.”

“So we have to go to London tomorrow to save the world again,” he said resigned.

“More like tonight, they say they’re going to start at 08:00 but I don’t trust them not to change the time on us. But that begs the question, what do we do with John?”

Ianto thought about it. Actually he had been thinking about little else since this had happened, trying to figure out a contingency plan for the possibility/eventuality that something would happen requiring the entire team. Rhys had been a possibility and could keep him at the Hub but while he seemed all right with him, John had taken a certain amount of joy in tormenting Gwen. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of the way she treated him or some kind of instinctive jealousy for which Ianto couldn’t blame him, he didn’t know but it didn’t bode well for overnight care. That left really only one option.

“Tosh and Owen would probably be all right with him overnight, but we can’t have him here, not with the team down the two of us. Tosh is barely healed and regardless of what he thinks, Owen is fragile, just about anything but weevils will require all three of them if not help from Rhys and that PC as well, you know the one.” Jack continued. For reasons unknown he had found it almost impossible to remember Andy Davidson’s name, no matter how much he dealt with him, or how useful he had proved himself to be.

“I have an idea, actually,” Ianto said, hoping to stop Jack before he wound himself back up again. He was edgy enough and Ianto was seriously giving consideration to switching him to decaf.

“Okay,” Jack said, with a smile. “I should have known you would have been planning for every possibility,” he said laying an almost innocent hand on Ianto's knee.

 _Only Jack,_ he thought but he knew his lover tended to act out a bit, especially when he was worried. “He can stay at my sister’s. She’s got two of her own and takes in others off the Estate when someone needs. It’s not the best idea but we can hardly drop him off at the local playschool. I know he’s not precisely a child but…” Ianto trailed off as Jack leaned back in his chair and said nothing.

Ianto waited, but still Jack said nothing. He knew it wasn’t going to be a popular idea. Even a few hours ago he had been telling himself what a horrible idea it was, but they were out of options. Martha Jones was out of the country with her UNIT work, and there was no one else. It was all Johnny’s fault really, that Jack was so reluctant. After everything that had happened with Jack’s brother, Tosh barely getting Owen out of the nuclear power plant, and herself only just escaping death with Jack’s quick thinking and a little battlefield medicine until Owen could get back through the weevil and rubble filled streets. Of course with Owen, weevils were no problem, but the rest had slowed him up, and Jack had almost stuck her in cryo, afraid that his skills wouldn’t be enough to save her, when Owen had walked into the Hub crowing in victory, unaware of Tosh’s condition since his comm had blown at the power plant. Jack had been so desperately grateful that everyone lived that he barely let them out of his sight for some time, and between the usual Rift activity and putting the city back together they had all had a time of it.

As soon things calmed though, Jack took him out, their first night away from the Hub since Grey, to a posh French restaurant for a celebratory dinner. It was wonderful, the first proper date they had gotten through in some time. Owen had practically thrown them out of the Hub, saying that if he had to watch the two of them throwing longing looks at each other for much longer, he would go ahead and eat the pizza just so that he would have something to be sick with. It was a wonderful evening, full of good food and possibly a little too much champagne, and what had followed after they left had been even better, but how was he to know some nosy cow from off the estate was out having her anniversary in the same place? Or that she would immediately go home and tell his sister all about it. Not that he cared what others thought, but his private life ought to be his own. Nor had he planned on not telling her, exactly, he just hadn’t found the words. She had been fine with it actually, taking it a lot better than he expected but Johnny, he had been taking the mickey ever since, unable to resist getting a laugh or two at his expense.

Unfortunately, Jack being Jack had asked him about it, after hearing him make an excuse not to visit for the next Christmas. He tried telling Jack he would rather spend the holiday with his lover watching the Rift (which was true) than deal with the rather chaotic event that it was at his sister's, but Jack knew better. Eventually he had told him the whole thing and while he had said nothing, Ianto knew that it had not endeared his family to him. The problem with Jack was that despite over a century on this planet, he still could not get his head around the way some people thought.

“So,” he said, finally leaning forward a little, bringing himself closer to Ianto. “You want me to send John for a sleepover, not just with civilians, outside the Hub, but with your sister and her homophobic husband? That would be the sister who you usually avoid seeing for many reasons, not the least of which is that her husband gives you a hard time about your choice of life partners? How were you planning on explaining him, or where he came from?” There was an edge in Jack’s tone and Ianto knew that he needed to be very careful about what he said. It had been a long and frustrating day, and sometimes the thing that was necessary to keep it from being longer and harder was in how he presented something.

“Johnny isn’t a homophobe, just a stupid yob. If it wasn’t you, he would find something else, has done since he started dating Rhia. As for avoiding them, what would we talk about, my top secret job, or my matinee idol handsome lover? Before I went off, we didn’t have anything to talk about, now we have even less.” Jack had given him one of those sexy smiles at the compliment that if he was lucky and their timing was good, might be worth exploring later, but at least he was listening. Ianto leaned forward a bit and rested a hand on top of the one that had some how found its way back to his knee, and smiled. Two could play at that game. “The point is, we are out of options, and if worse comes to worse we can ret con them, though I would prefer not to. John can behave,” he said, hoping it was the truth. Certainly for the most part he was acting an incredibly precocious toddler, except for his language which thankfully was hidden in the static.

“I take it you have even come up with a cover story.”

Uh-oh, this was going to be the hard part, he thought to himself. “Actually I thought we would tell them he was yours.” Ianto tried to keep his face neutral, but for his part Jack looked a bit sick.

“You want to tell them that he’s what? There are already any number of problems with this idea, not the least of which is that it will dig me into a bigger hole with your family. Now you want to tell them that I have a child with someone else, and oh, by the way could you possibly turn child minder for us, so we can run off and save London?”

“Didn’t think I would let them in on the saving London part,” he said, trying to hide the pleasure that shot through him. Jack actually cared what his family thought? That certainly spoke more of their…well, whatever it was, than the two of them usually managed, but he pushed that thought aside for now. “Look, Jack, it’s not optimal I agree, but as you said, John is not a toddler, we can make him understand I’m sure.”

“Not the first time he’s done undercover,” Jack said thoughtfully. “I don’t like it, how do we know they will even agree? What are we going to tell them later when he isn’t around? I suppose we could blame his mother, lives out of the country, that kind of thing. We could explain the translator as some kind of high tech hearing aid or some kind of medical device, something in prototype?” his voice faded off as he was now focusing on the details, how to actually pull this off.

“I’ll call Rhia, and then you can explain it to John,” Ianto said, standing up, but not before a quick glance through the glass, and a soft kiss when he realized no one was looking. Jack gave him a smile and grabbed a sheet of paper, pulling his fountain pen from his pocket to start working out what they needed to deal with UNIT. Packing up John would be his job, and he knew it. But what else were they going to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and hope you will enjoy. Please comment, it keeps me going.


	14. Explainations

By the time Ianto had returned from calling his sister and packing for both John and the two of them, just a few things in case it took longer, Jack had made a list of what he needed as well. His sister had been predictably full of questions, wanting to know how serious the two of them could be if he had a child by some woman, but Ianto had neatly ducked most of them and counted on her curiosity about the little boy, coupled with John’s energy to keep her from asking too many questions. John had gone into the office while he was gone and was sitting in Jack’s lap again. Obviously he had gotten over his fright at the loud noise, either that or he had just wanted to get into Tosh’s lap, a thought he didn’t want to put too much energy on. There were already more than enough things to worry about between UNIT and John, not to mention the potential of Jack doing something unfortunate to some high ranking members of the military, for him to borrow any extra stress. 

As he opened the door, Jack met his gaze. He could see the question and the hope and/or fear in his eyes. Ianto nodded, confirmation that the plan would go forward regardless of how either one of them felt about it. It also confirmed his suspicion that he hadn’t told John yet. Ah, well, if he had wanted a boring life, he would have left Torchwood. 

“John,” he started, after a supportive smile from the young Welshman. “Ianto and I have to go away for a little while, probably just overnight, but it might be two nights.”

“Why?” the toddler asked. Ianto rolled his eyes and prayed that he would be back to his normal size before that became the predominant word in his vocabulary.

Jack thought for a moment, and then opted for the truth. 

“Some men with the power to do so want to cut through the aft exhaust port on a damaged Vrakian fighter with a plasma torch of an unknown origin near a major population centre, and we need to explain to them why they can’t.”

“That’s stupid, it’ll blow up a very large piece of real estate,” the little boy said, sounding a bit like his grown up self. 

“Yes,” he said, remembering how Owen had said that he maintained his technical knowledge just not his memory. “So we have to stop them, and you…”

“I can’t come with you can I?” the little boy asked, pouting a little.

“No, you can’t, but we have a place for you to stay.”

“Not here?” he asked, but didn’t seem surprised. 

“No, and you know why not. If the team has to go out on a call…”

“I can stay alone, it’s only for a little while, I’ll behave, not like the last time. The zombie and Tosh can keep their eyes on me.” For once he sounded like the small boy he looked. Ianto could almost feel his heart melt, almost. He remembered what it was to be a small boy, and somehow it just seemed unfair, but there was no other choice. At least at Rhia’s he could actually be a little boy for a while. 

“No, we’ve arranged for a place for you to stay, that isn’t a problem, you might even enjoy it. But I need you to do something for me. She thinks you’re my son.” 

The little boy looked at him with big eyes, and he knew that wasn’t how Jack wanted it to come out. “I’m not, though, am I?” John asked. “I don’t feel like I am, I feel…I don’t know but I would ….y well know if I was, I would feel…something, yeah?” There was concern and frustration in his voice and Jack unconsciously pulled him closer. Ianto could almost see a hint of the father Jack had been, before his special nature had driven away the wife and daughter he loved. Of the things that Jack had told him, his daughter and grandson had been the one that surprised Ianto the most. Some days he could almost understand, but most of the time it was beyond him how a parent could rip a family apart. Briefly his mother popped into his mind, but he turned his attention back to the two in front of him. 

“No, we aren’t related at all. I promise you that, not even close.”

John nodded, obviously grateful for the information, though why would be a question for another time. “So do I call him… Uncle Ianto, or Pappa Ianto?” he said, tossing his head in the other man’s direction. “He is your….” There was a long patch of static, but Jack obviously understood it.

 

“What did he say?” Ianto asked, wanting to be sure whether he should be insulted or not. 

“The word doesn’t exist here, there isn’t a really good equivalent in this time, sort of equal parts lover, partner, companion, and soul mate, all in one word,” he told the younger man before turning back to the toddler. “Where did you get that from?” Jack said, visibly startled.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? I can just tell, besides, I smell ‘im all over you, same with him. Well, are you?”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, we are, I just… I suppose I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, even thought in those terms in a long time.” He ruffled the little boy’s hair, and looked up at his lover.

Ianto was still trying to stay standing, Jack’s definition and agreement with it was more than he thought he would ever hear from the other man. They didn’t do definitions, or really sort out what their relationship was, it merely was. He knew Jack loved him, though neither of them was good at talking about their feelings. But hearing it put like that in terms of Jack’s world and time was a little more intimate than he ever expected. Part of him wanted to cry, but he would never do that, certainly not in front of John Hart. Instead he came over, and put a hand on his lover’s shoulder, and slipped into his usual place on the boss’s desk. 

“So, now that we have that straightened,” he said, trying to get Jack thinking in the right direction. “I think just Ianto will be fine. If Rhiannon asks about your Mum, just tell her that you don’t want to talk about it, all right?”

“Yes,” Jack said, stirring. “Owen is going to give me some pills for your headaches, and something to help you sleep so you won’t have nightmares while we are gone. You promise to take them?” The boy nodded. “I don’t like the idea of sleeping pills at your age, but if I can’t be there to help with your nightmares, it’ll have to do.”

“I’m not my age, you know,” the blond said sharply, but he didn’t resist the idea of the pills, probably just as afraid of what the nightmares would bring while he was alone. 

“We should get on then, Jack. It’s gettin’ late and none of us have eaten, and we still have to brief the rest of the team. I called Gwen back in and she should be here in…” he checked his watch. “About now, I should think. I’ll take John down for a bath, so that all he has to do at Rhia’s is sleep and we can get down in time to set up your little surprise.”

Jack nodded. “What shall we have for dinner? Anything but Chinese, tonight.”

“Pizza?” Ianto suggested. John nodded and bounced in Jack’s lap. 

“Pizza it is then,” Jack said. “Let me make sure I have all that I need, and I’ll be back up in time for the briefing.” He looked more than a little tired and distracted, and Ianto held out a hand to John. The little boy took it, sliding off Jack’s lap and following out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for keeping up with this, please read and review, and all those strange things.


	15. Meet the Family

In the end it took them almost three hours to leave the Hub. After the briefing, and food, Ianto helped Jack load some speciality equipment for a little ‘demonstration’ he had planned that he said would solve the problem pretty well. Once again, as Ianto was loading the bag he had found for John’s things and Jack was trying to buckle him in the child seat, also a charity shop find, he considered broaching the subject of a second SUV. He still wasn’t sure what the rest of the team was going to do, but worrying about it wasn’t going to help. Especially not with the other things he had to worry about. Jack had never been to his sister’s home, nor met her and Johnny, and for the first time he started to wonder what he was going to make of them, what they were going to make of him. Ianto had never been particularly proud of where he came from, a legacy of a father who had not accepted how he had come down in the world, especially not after his mother had left them. Then there was Rhiannon, she had fit in right from the beginning, always friendly, always social.

Not like Ianto, he had always been quiet, reserved. His father wanted him to make something of himself, not settle for the life on the estate, he had pushed and Ianto had reacted by pushing back, rebelling. It ended with him getting pinched for shoplifting. His dad had been furious, almost took his head off. That was it for Ianto, he left, bummed around, no real idea what to do, taking shit jobs, never staying in one place. Then Dad had died, it had shaken him. He buckled down, sorted himself he supposed, got the job at Torchwood One because he didn’t want to be anywhere near Cardiff. Rhia was happy enough with Johnny and David, then Micah came along. He didn’t think she blamed him for Dad, but he blamed himself, thought that he had been a disappointment. Trying to get away from these disturbing thoughts, he looked into the mirror at John. He had been subdued ever since they got into the car, and Jack, he was focusing on the road, trying to look casual and actually driving sedately.

“All right back there?” he asked. The little boy looked at him. He could see the attempt at bravado that was all his adult self, but behind it was real fear. He nodded once. “Won’t be bad, I promise.” Ianto wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure. The SUV stopped at the traffic light, and there was a reassuring hand on his leg. Jack was trying to smile, treat this like any other outing, but he could see the concern in the tight lines around his mouth.

“Almost there?”

“Yeah, take the next turning, they are at the bottom of the hill, on the end of the block.” Jack nodded, and moved forward with the turning of the light.

As soon as Jack parked the SUV, Ianto jumped out, hoping to minimize the time that his partner and his sister had to spend together. Not that he was worried about Rhia, except possibly her tendency to giggle, but Johnny was a whole different matter. Looking back, Ianto could see Jack talking to John in the back seat. They could probably use some time as well.

Jack undid the safety belt and slid out of the car. John was already pulling at the harness trying to sort his way out of the seat, and he probably would have succeeded if Jack hadn’t joined him in the back, undoing the straps and helping him out. “Are you okay with this John?” he asked, squatting down to look him in the eye. John nodded but didn’t say anything. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the best we can do for now, and it will only be for the night, and tomorrow, tomorrow night, max.”

“I know, it’s just…” the boy looked at him. He could see the confusion, John was scared and it was not a feeling he had ever been comfortable with, not that he was ever comfortable with feelings at all, but when John was afraid he tended to attack. Now he was just a little boy, and everything was bigger and more frightening. Jack reached out and put an arm around him, letting him snuggle in for just a moment.

“You don’t need to be afraid. Besides, you only look like a kid. There is so much more to you, you just don’t remember right now. It will be just like being undercover.”

“Have I been undercover before?” John asked, looking up as if he was being given some kind of treat.

“Sure, more than once, and you were good at it, as long as you kept your temper. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll try,” he said, though he didn’t sound terribly sure about it. With his screwy memory and as much training as Jack, it was probably the best he could do.

“You try, and I expect you to keep an eye on Micah and David.  They really are children, and while I’m not expecting anything unusual, still…” Jack left it hanging.

“I’ll take care of them, I promise. Jack, do you love me?” John asked. The immortal was floored, like he had just been punched in the gut. This was definitely not the time to have that discussion. “If not, why are you taking care of me?” Breathing in slowly, Jack composed himself.

“We have known each other a long time,” he said. “And yes, I care for you, and I always will, no matter what happens. Maybe by the time we get back, Tosh and Owen will have cooked up something to get you back to normal, but meanwhile, just try to enjoy it.” John nodded, the serious look almost enough to make Jack laugh. “Now, are you ready to meet Ianto’s family?”

Rhia opened the door almost as soon as Ianto reached for it, but he hustled her straight into the lounge. The room was as chaotic as the last time he had been here, his niece playing some kind of computer game on the settee, while David was building something with legos in the middle of the floor, and his sister with her envelopes spread over the table. “Where is this Jack of yours then, not to mention the boy. You never said he had a child before, and why not, I want to know. I mean how serious can this all be if he has a child out there,” she started, but Ianto waved her down distractedly.

“Hush, the kids’ll hear you, and Jack will be in with John in just a minute. Where’s Johnny?” he asked, looking around the room for his brother in law to ambush him with embarrassing talk and awful jokes. If he was lucky, the other man down the local watching the match or having a pint or two, but he was rarely that lucky.

“How were you thinking they wouldn’t notice another kid round the place? Johnny’s gone over next door, she’s loaned me that extra travel bed, but forgot the sheets. We’re putting him up in Micah’s room since David’s is too much of a nightmare. Honestly you would think that he was born in a barn, just like his father he is.” Ianto failed to answer, since the last thing he wanted to get into with his sister was an assessment of her skills as a housekeeper.

“The woman, John’s mother, she didn’t tell him at first, and they are still working out what Jack’s role is going to be, she changes her mind a lot,” he said, improvising. “But he got injured, and then she had to go away for work, so here we are.”

“Injured? He’s not got those special needs or that, I haven’t…”

“No, he just has a bit of a jolt. He has these pills if he has a headache, he can’t have paracetamol or anything, just these. These others, they are for him at night, he has nightmares, these will help him sleep through. Just give him one right before he lays down.” Ianto handed over the two bottles along with the directions card with everything, including Owen’s number in case of absolute emergency, and Jack’s mobile as well as his own. He was just distracting her with details, when Johnny popped through the garden door.

“Hello, got those sheets then, where is the little…” As if it couldn’t get any worse, that was the moment Jack chose to knock on the door. Rhia rose to open the door and invite them both in. John was quiet, but Jack turned the charm on his sister at once. “Oi, gay boy, this your bloke then? He don’t look bent, but I…”

“Oi, button it, Johnny, can’t you see we’ve got guests? Come on in, Captain Harkness.”

“Jack, please, and this is John.” The boy was clinging to his coat, clearly terrified by the loud people round him, but he looked up and nodded at Rhia before scanning the room, much the way Ianto had seen Jack do, checking the exits, seeing where danger could come from. In spite of his memory, Ianto could still see traces of the soldier he had once been.

“John, why don’t you come over here, David’s got some legos.”

“He’s just a baby, what does he know about…” David started to whine, but one look from his mother was enough for him to make room for the little boy, and once John started clicking them together it was obvious that the older boy was impressed.

“They're just like…” there was static from the translator, and Jack immediately stepped in.

“It’s an advanced device, because of his injury. Don’t worry about it, just take it off when he’s in the bath. You can leave the ear piece in when he sleeps, just take the battery pack off. But some words, like brand names, don’t really come through.” Jack said quickly, and with such sincerity that they didn’t dare question it. Ianto was ready and more than to get out of there even though he knew it was going to be hard on John.

Two minutes later and numerous deflections, Jack and Ianto made it to the SUV. Micah had joined John and David on the floor where they were busy designing something that looked like it had the potential to use all the impressive number of building blocks his nephew had collected over the years and most of the living room. Rhia and Johnny had been put off when Jack offered to take the two of them out for dinner ‘sometime after John had gone back home’, an offer that made Rhia blush and Johnny look perplexed. Actually maybe that was just Johnny’s normal gormless expression, Ianto thought as he breathed a sigh of relief and wondered when the idea of going up against a powerful international paramilitary organization over a potentially world threatening alien energy source became less stressful than dealing with his family. No, that wasn’t right, dealing with any alien threat was much more a part of his normal life than his family, sad perhaps but true. He wanted to talk to Jack, but didn’t know how to start the conversation, but at least they had a couple of hours of drive to sort it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for keeping up with this. I love this story a lot and I am glad it's been well recieved. Please tell me what you think. There will be trivia later :)


	16. Roadtrip

“All right?” Jack asked, some time later. They had left the city behind and already turned off onto the M4 heading for the Severn Bridge. 

“Yeah, just making sure I’ve got my papers for the border crossing." The joke was old and probably tired, but Jack laughed anyway. 

“You’ll be fine, you’re with the Captain. Now, you want to answer the real question? Family can be…trying.”

“It’s fine, they were no worse than usual.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted to know. Are you okay?” Jack asked.

“With what?” he said a bit sharply. “There’s quite a list going at this moment.”

“Any of it, all of it?” Jack asked, his eyes never leaving the dark road ahead of them.

“I just arranged for my sister to mind a miniature alien psychopath with a memory issue. You are hiding something from me and we had to leave the team down two members for at least a day. We’re driving through the night to access a top secret military base with the intention of stopping a couple of mad scientists from blowin’ up half the country out of sheer arrogance. So not all that much different from any other day at Torchwood I suppose, but what exactly about this should I be all right with?” he said with more vehemence than even he expected.

“Ianto, we’ll make this all work out. John will be fine with your sister and her kids for a little while, he seems fairly safe at this stage of…well, whatever it is. As for the rest, I’m not ready to see London go up yet, though there is that one building…”

“And those are the least of my concerns, actually,” Ianto responded, a little surprised with himself. “Like you say, that’s just another day at Torchwood. It’s what you’re not telling me that bothers me. I thought we were past all of that.”

“I told you earlier…”

“And we got interrupted.” Startled at himself, the young Welshman turned to look out at the countryside, dark except for passing cars and the odd house or farmyard light in the distance. He could hear Jack sigh, and then to his surprise, the immortal pulled the big SUV into a lay-by he had failed to notice in the dark. Once the vehicle had stopped, he looked back at Jack. The captain had rested his chin on the steering wheel, eyes closed. 

“Jack…” he said, concerned not only with his lover’s behavior, but with the fact he had stopped after all of his warning about how dangerous what they were walking into was.

“I’m really not trying to hold back on you, you know,” he said, looking over at the other man. Ianto could see how tired he looked, and not the tired of a missed night of sleep either. This was the tired of a man who had lived too long. “What I said earlier, I meant it. The more I think about it the more…I need some time. I need to find some answers. When you asked if it was about that time, I thought no. But the more I think about it, I'm not so sure. I need to find some answers for both of us, for him and for myself. What if I found something out, a link between what John was doing and my missing memories?”

“Like what?” Ianto asked. “You think John…” he asked, startled and not a little angry.

“No, I don’t think he was involved, but the fact that he was away, that he knew nothing about it, is a little odd. No, I am wondering if there is a connection. What if John was working on something, something they didn’t want me to know about? The timing bothered me then and even more now.” Ianto was filled with a million questions at once, but didn’t know where to start, and he was fairly sure Jack didn’t either. “Just give me a day or two after we get back, do a little research.”

“Jack, not to impugn your hero status, but you’re rubbish at research.”

“Yes, and any other time I would have you helping me, but in this case I don’t think you can. If I find a way though…” he said with a smile, resting a gentle hand on his lover’s shoulder. 

“You’ll be glad to turn it over to me so you don’t have to do it yourself,” he finished for him. Jack smiled and leaned over for a gentle kiss, one that was full of all kinds of promises for later. The subject wasn’t closed, Ianto knew that, and he knew that Jack did as well. But for now, he also knew that he wasn’t going to get any further. Rushing Jack never got anyone anything they wanted, and it wasn’t like they really had time for this right now. “Now, hadn’t we better get back to saving the world? Her Majesty will not take kindly to you letting them blow up her capital.”

“I’ll just have to make up the time,” Jack said, getting ready to pull back on the road.

“Looking forward to it,” Ianto said with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll check in with the team and my sister.” Jack nodded absently as he rocketed back onto the motorway.

“Little fella’s fine, just tuckered out’s all.” Rhia said when he called a few moments later. “They played with them blocks ‘til I had to make them go to bed. He’s a bright one, especially for his age. Bethan and Caden’s son is ‘is age and he can barely make sense. Mind, neither of them has the great good sense of a pot plant. Still, he’s closer to Micah,” she said. 

“He gets it from Jack,” Ianto said, hoping that would be enough for his sister.

“Tha’s good then, you need someone brainy, you do.” 

“So, no trouble then?” he asked, hoping to get his sister off the subject.

“Nah, just not wanting his milk, but that’s normal enough, like something one day, can’t stand the sight of it the next. I gave him his pill and bedded him down for the night. Is your Jack like to be a nervous father?” she asked. Ianto didn’t know how to respond to that, either her assumption that Jack was his, or what kind of father he would make.

“I’m not sure,” he said finally. “The situation is so new. I mean he’s still adjusting.” Next to him, his lover sat, staring out the front windscreen, his face distant and unreadable.

“Just sayin’,” Rhia said, not pressing for which he was eternally grateful. “Regardless, he’s fine and he’ll have a good time here. He’ll be fine ‘til you come and collect him.” Ianto agreed with her and then hurried through the goodbyes with an excuse of patchy cell service. 

“All right?” Jack asked, not taking his eyes from the road.

“Fine,” he said just as he had after calling the Hub to check on them. All they had was a nest of baby weevils, either abandoned or orphaned. Owen had checked, found that they were close to dying of malnutrition or dehydration whichever got them first. The doctor had transported them over to Yvonne, a newer and younger female weevil currently residing next to Janet after they found her a few months ago, injured digging through a bin behind one of the more exclusive restaurants in Cardiff. They had only taken her in because of her injuries and if they bonded well, they would probably send them with her when she was released back into the sewers. Owen was already making jokes about Dr. Harper’s Halfway House for Wayward Weevils. Yvonne seemed harmless enough and had attacked no one. They had named her after the former head of Torchwood One as Jack said there was something about her that reminded him of the former director. Ianto agreed though neither one could say just what it was. Still Yvonne she was and Yvonne she would remain, only now with a pair of young ones. They had never quite found the right descriptive for weevil young, though Owen had suggested larvae while Suzie had favoured cubs. This once, Ianto mostly agreed with Suzie.

“So Jack, what’s your plan?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for enjoying. There will be more soon. Meanwhile do all the usual things.


	17. Playing

The strange woman’s voice woke John Hart the next morning earlier than he had any desire to be awake. He may have forgotten a lot of things, all right, practically everything but he knew he didn’t like being woken up early. It took him a moment to get his bearings, remember where he was and why. At first there was a movement of almost paralyzing fear. Jack wasn’t here, neither was his _doliche_ , Ianto. For as long as he could remember, which was only the past week, but still, they had been there when he woke. At this exact moment he would take Tosh or the zombie doctor, maybe Rhys, hell even Gwen would be better than waking up completely alone in a strange place.

Then the door opened and a familiar little girl came in. Her name was Micah, he remembered. He was with Ianto’s sister and her family, and they thought he was a child and Jack was his father. He took a deep breath and got up. The battery pack for his translation unit was on the very neat table between the two beds, one permanent, the other temporary. He put the strap round his neck and pushed the button that took it out of standby mode and into active. Then with a little help from Micah who told him her Mum wouldn’t let him stay at the table without his slippers, they both went out to the front room for breakfast.

“There you are, sleepyhead. All right?” Rhia asked, ruffling his hair. She was nice, John decided, definitely what a mother ought to be, at least that’s what the part of his mind that knew such things said. Not the least talking down to him like that Gwen. Also she didn’t make those big eyes at Jack, at least she didn’t last night, which was especially good since her brother was bonded to him first and her with that Johnny bloke. Not that having Rhys stopped Gwen, but maybe she just wanted to put all four of them together. Personally he didn’t think it would work, maybe Tosh, but not Gwen, she just wasn’t…He didn’t know, only that he didn’t like it.

“All right?” she said again, a little more concerned, and he realized he had drifted off for a few. He nodded and she seemed to accept it. “Good.  Now, I don’t know what you usually have in the morning, but I made a fry up since David has football this morning. You can have eggs or cereal, whatever you want.”

“Eggs?” John said cautiously, a little confused.  He wasn’t really sure what he liked mostly he just ate what Ianto brought for everyone. Breakfast just wasn’t his favourite meal, coming as it did at the beginning of the day. He just stuffed his mouth with whatever they put in front of him while he dozed in Jack’s lap. For the other meals they made him sit in the chair, but Jack knew he wasn’t good with mornings. In fact, Jack knew more about him that he knew about himself, but that was something else.

Rhia helped him up into a chair like the one he had at the Hub, only this one had no wheels on the chair underneath and he slouched lazily, waiting for food.

Around him, Rhia kept up a constant stream of talk, urging Johnny to hurry so he could take David to practice before he went to the Home Center for those… He tuned most of it out the way he usually did when they were discussing Torchwood business. After a few minutes Rhia put a plate in front of him. She had cut up his eggs for him, but told him he could pick up his sausage and toast. She also brought him more milk, which he still didn’t like, but people kept trying to give it to him regardless. He thought it tasted like the coolant fluid from a Chula warship and had told Jack as much the first time, but on that point he refused to give at all, though John noticed he didn’t disagree about the taste.

David and Johnny went, after they promised him that they wouldn’t work on the space base they were building with legos over a quarter of the lounge without him. As soon as he finished the last of his toast and milk, Rhia hustled them both into the lounge so she could get the washing up done, with promises to take them over to the play park if they didn’t make too much bother. John was still not sure about being awake so he just slouched over to the couch and threw himself down while Micah fiddled with the video and asked him about movies. He just gave her a ‘whatever’ shrug and settled down to watch what she put on.

 

Even with all the delays, they had got up to London well before sunrise. Jack pulled over at a transport café a few kilometres from the base for food or at least what passed for it. Breakfast was greasy and the less said about the coffee the better in Ianto’s not very bloody humble opinion. According to Jack it was not the worst he had ever had, but considering what he called drinkable, that was not exactly high praise.

Ianto had slept most of the way down so he wasn’t completely fagged, but Jack looked tired and just a bit edgy. “Are you ready for this?” Jack asked as they got back into the SUV.

“As much as I’m going to be,” the younger man said. “At least if they succeed I won’t have to worry about the clean up.” Jack looked at him as if he’d just admitted a secret passion for weevil sex.

“Ianto…” Jack said, then stopped, opened his mouth, closed it again and sat there, clearly trying to figure out what to say.

The Welshman realized that his sarcasm had failed dramatically to calm Jack down, but he didn’t know how to take it back. After a couple of minutes of silence, Jack suddenly turned and flipped up the cover over the battered leather strap on his wrist and started pressing buttons urgently. Seemingly satisfied with what he saw, he did something Ianto had never seen him do before. Jack unfastened the wide leather cuff and handed it to him. Ianto just looked at him, stunned.

“Ianto,” Jack said sharply, getting his attention. “Here, put it on.” The young man was too stunned to do anything but comply. When he had moved his watch to his other wrist and secured the band he looked back at Jack expectantly, still completely gobsmacked. He never took that thing off, not even to shower. It was so much a part of him that no one had even suggested removing it after Abaddon even though they had taken everything else.

“See this,” Jack said, opening it towards him. “It’s pre-programmed, if something goes wrong today, I want you to press this button. It’ll teleport you out. The range isn’t great but it should get you out of the blast zone. Don’t stop, don’t hesitate. We’ll use your safe word. Once you teleport, call the Hub and have them get up here, and then call Martha. I have a signal set up in the program. Have her call the Doctor, he should be able to home in on the active signal, understand?”

Ianto didn’t know where to start. He was still in shock. “Ianto, do you understand?” Jack said very slowly. Ianto nodded, still figuring out which of the things fighting for control of his mouth to start with.

“Thought it was broken,” he croaked finally, the first thing that floated to the top.

“It was, well, it still is, mostly. The Doctor disabled it again last time, but I got the base code off John when he was around before and I’ve been tinkering with it on and off. It’s not much and this may burn it out for good but…” he shrugged.

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me, just go. I’ll be fine, you know that.”

“But if I can get you...”

“No,” Jack said sharply. Ianto opened his mouth to argue, but Jack stopped him. “I don’t know that it has enough power for two, that might just overload it.”

“Then you should be the one…”

“Ianto, no. I’ll survive, you won’t, and I need you. I need you to live. Without you…” Ianto looked into Jack’s blue eyes, eyes that had seen too much. He hadn’t expected the pain and fear he had encountered. There was nothing he could say. Neither of them was good at expressing themselves, they just weren’t like that, were they? But this one gesture said more than all the words ever could, it spoke of things for which words were inadequate. Ianto nodded his agreement. Jack smiled, then leaned over and kissed him tenderly. “I suppose we should get on with it then,” he said starting the motor.

“Yep.” There was nothing else to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual thank you for reading. The next bit is going to be...interesting. If you can figure out where the names of the commanders come from, you are doing well.


	18. Chapter 18

The play park was interesting. When they arrived John had immediately checked the enclosed area. Only a few children, all ones that knew Micah, and the attendant mothers sitting at a picnic set. Rhia went to join the mothers after telling the kids to be careful. To her credit, Micah didn’t treat John like a baby. It hadn’t taken her long to suss that he was merely smaller, but she was smart, smarter than her brother certainly. John looked around at the play equipment. He had never seen anything like it before, though there was something vaguely similar. He felt a memory trying to surface, but when he tried to focus, it faded. Cursing the zombie doctor for being right, he realised that Micah was waiting for him. He took the hand she offered and they ran off to join the others on the climbing frame. 

Rhia watched them for a moment. It was nice, she realised as she sat down with Moiré and Gwyneth, watching the two children join the others. Micah was good with him, maybe it was time to consider a third, she thought, before rejecting the idea. Of course now there was the possibility that she would get to be a doting aunt. She didn’t know what to make of the strange little boy. Of course the whole situation had thrown her for a loop, first her little brother dating a man, and now, there was a child. When she had found out about Jack she had given up the idea that Ianto would ever have the kind of normal life she did. Not that he couldn’t get married now if he wanted to, though she didn’t know if his…what did you call them anyway? Not like she really understood how things were between two blokes, but regardless, Rhia knew that things were special between them, she could tell. But whatever she thought of their relationship, she didn’t think much of John’s mam whoever she was, springing him on Jack of a sudden, then dumping him on them, injured, not that she really grasped the details. 

Ianto had put all the important bits down on the index card. Always precise like that, her brother, he would make a good parent, Rhia was sure of that. When she heard about Jack, she had thought all that was over. Not that she would blame him, that Jack Harkness could turn anyone’s head regardless of what they thought, and while she’d not been keen when she found out he’d had girlfriends as well but Ianto’d had girlfriends and all. It had still been obvious when she met him that he loved her brother. Not that she wouldn’t scalp him, beautiful or no, if he hurt Ianto.

“Oi, gathered enough wool there to knit a shop full of jumpers,” Gwyneth said, getting her attention.

“Sorry, been a bit mad, just thinking,” Rhia answered. “Try it sometime, might do you a world of good.”

“Oh, hark her, thinking. We were wondering where you got the new little one.”

“I’m keeping him for me brother,” she said without thinking and instantly regretted it.

“You have more than one we don’t know about?” Moiré asked. “Kaitlin over number 24 said Ianto’d gone bender. Not but what I know he was engaged to that black girl. What ever happened to her?”

“She got killed in that mess in London few years ago. Worked with Ianto in that big tower block at Canary Wharf and he’s not…I’s complicated,” she said.

“Ah, one of those,” Gwyn said knowingly, “goes either way. But how does that get to a three year old you're watching? You would have told us and he’s never that black girl’s, not much like Ianto at all, come to it.”

“Her name was Lisa and no…Micah, don’t let him climb up there,” Rhia called out. John had managed to get to the top of the frame and was surveying the playground. Watching Micah get him down and head to the slide, she tried to think. Not but what they were her friends, but Moiré was an awful gossip. At least if she told her the truth, she would make sure the story would get out right. For all that she was a gossip, she kept her facts straight. Besides, she needed someone to talk to. Certain that the kids were okay, she turned back to talk. 

“He’s not Ianto’s at all, he’s Jack’s.”

“That’s Ianto’s bloke then?”

“Yeah, Captain Jack Harkness if you please. He was something with the RAF for all that he’s an American, I think, and looks like a film star.”

“Oh, that just figures, all the good looking ones are either taken or on the other bus, or both.” There was a general laugh all round, but they were looking expectantly at Rhia waiting for the rest. 

“Well, it’s like this,” she said, starting to lay the whole thing out for them or as much as she knew. After all, it was what friends were for. When she finished, there was silence.

“Well, I don’t think much of his Mam,” Gwyn said, finally.

“Yeah, what kind of woman don’t tell a bloke ‘e’s a da and then just drops the sprog off on no notice. Mind, it seems that Jack’s all right, just taking it on faith.”

“I don’t know, he’s definitely got Jack’s eyes and he seems to have bonded with him. He hasn’t said a thing about his mam, but he’s asked after Jack and Ianto. Besides that he’s got some kind of trauma, nightmares. They gave him pills for it, to sleep. Ianto says they’re from the accident and they don’t want him to have to go through it without Jack around, but still.”

“You think there’s something fishy with his mother?”

“I don’t know, really, but I am saying I wouldn’t mind turning child minder a time or two if they kept him.”

“Yeah, but the two…” Whatever Moiré was going to say was lost as John was pushed down the slide and flew off the end in disarray. Rhia was up on her feet and round the gate before he could land.

Rhia was beside him just as he began to cry, gathering the small boy to her ample bosom. “’s alright sweetheart,” she said, checking him over. Micah had got the battery pack that had flown over his head and given it back to him, elbowing Idris Davies as she passed. He didn’t notice, as his mother, Gwyneth, continued the bollocking she was giving him in both languages for pushing John down the slide. They were from the north and she never really let anyone forget that they had never lost their language. 

John looked up at Rhia, tears in his eyes, and stopped crying, just cut it off, though she could see that there was more there. “I’m not supposed to cry, I never cry,” he said. He tried to look at her ,but it was an effort. He was so obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable, more embarrassed than a boy his age should ever be in her not bloody well humble opinion. 

“Tha’s a load of bollocks, that is,” she said, without thinking. “Who told you that nonsense?” John looked at her, a little confused, but she put it down to his age. “Wasn’t your father, was it? Not Jack,” she added for clarification, not exactly sure what the boy was supposed to call him. But the boy shook his head certainly. No, she didn’t think so, couldn’t see Jack giving him that load of old shite. “Your Mam then?” she asked, hoping that it was just some other child and she could dismiss it. John bit his lip and then nodded. Rhia gave him another hug while trying not to say anything. Far be it for her to tell another woman how to raise her kid, she knew what she would have to say if someone did it to her. Still she didn’t think much of his mam at all, and knew that it would be best for all concerned if she never met the woman. 

It was early in the afternoon when they heard the music in the close. They had come back from the park to a dinner of fish fingers, and were busy playing a video game when the cheery music blared over the volume of the game. Micah dropped her controller and ran to her mother to beg for ice cream money. John didn’t know what was going on, but he was willing to follow along. Micah practically dragged him out the door with her. “Come on, we don’t want to miss him,” she said as they hurried up the path. 

“Miss who?” John asked, scanning the area out of habit.

“The ice cream van. Don’t you have them where you live?”

“No,” he said truthfully. “But I like ice cream.” There were other kids coming out of doors or round fences and heading towards the music and the painted van at the top of the hill.

“’Course you do, everyone likes ice cream,” Micah said with the certainty of a little girl who knew what was what. It occurred to John that between the voice of authority and the look on her face that she was exactly like her Mam and considering how nice her mam was, that was a pretty good thing to be. Just as they reached the steps, another kid, a boy of a year or two older than Micah came up from another building. As he drew up to them, John looked at the boy suspiciously. Jack had told him to look after Micah and David, after all it wasn’t as if he was a child really, just playing one, sort of. It was strange and confusing, but he went with his instincts, and there was definitely something he didn’t like about the boy. 

“Hey, looks like your lucky day,” the boy said, smiling nastily at Micah.

“Yeah?” she said eyeing him with a look that told John she didn’t like him either.

“Yep, it’s the day you get to buy me an ice cream, maybe two,” he said, looking at John as if he was calculating down to the last penny how much money they were worth in ice cream.

“Not bloody likely, Davy Williams,” she said.

“Don’t let your mam hear you talk like that,” he said, as he reached for her.

“Leave her alone,” John said, or at least that was what came through the burst of static that engulfed the several epithets.

“Or what, Half pint?” he said, pushing John to the ground before raising his fist and advancing on Micah. John came off the ground assessing tactics. He grabbed the larger boy round the leg and sank his sharp little teeth into the back of his knee. Davy yelped and tried to grab at John but only succeeded in unbalancing himself more, landing with a thump on his backside as John twisted out of the way. The little boy threw himself at the bigger lad with a yell worthy of a martial arts master (which he might actually be, he thought vaguely). He kicked the bully strategically in the groin with all the force he could muster at his small size. Davy yelped and rolled onto his side, knees drawn up, all thought of ice cream gone. 

“Leave us alone,” the little boy said finally. Micah grabbed his hand and hurried him up the hill to the van, a huge smile on her face. 

“Tha’ll teach him,” she said certainly. “He’s been going round bullying everyone, trying to be one of the big boys, like his brother who’s not but a loud mouth yob. Mam says it’s because his Mum is a slapper and doesn’t pay any proper mind to them since his Da went off with the girl from the fish and chips van. Oh, but don’t tell ‘er I said that or she’ll box me round the ears, she don’t think I listen when she’s talking to people. You’re a proper hero, you know?” 

John smiled. Jack would be pleased, he thought, Ianto too as it was his niece. Never much liked bullies, him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay a bit of a long one here, but I promise some action at least (though not the alien kind, thats tomorrow). Please read, write and enjoy.


	19. UNIT vs Harkness

It was well into the afternoon when they finally took a break. Ianto was fagged in spite of rest he’d got before the merry band from UNIT showed up. Jack had not been far wrong: the guards, while surprised to see them, admitted them. He then ran a series of scans determining that, while the deadlock seal held, someone had tried to tamper with it. To say he wasn’t happy would have been akin to saying a mob of Hoix in a meat processing plant might take a small bite out of the profits. He had steamed, kicked a few things, ordered the base commander got out of bed, and seriously considered having Ianto wake up her Majesty.

He’d managed to calm Jack down a bit, but pulled up the private number to his contact at the Palace just in case. The Queen was fond of Jack and would definitely take a dim view of London being blown off the face of the planet, but he would rather they not get her up. Unless there was no other way. The Queen, like Jack, wasn’t keen on early morning wake up disasters. They sent the base commander, a round faced Manc with receding red hair and the body of a footballer, back to bed. Commander Rooney clearly had known nothing of the danger sitting on his base, and wasn’t too thrilled now that he did. Then they set up Jack’s ‘demonstration’ on a piece of waste ground before his lover sent him back to the SUV for a bit more rest.

It was half six when three UNIT jeeps and a transport pulled up to the warehouse. They were ready for them. Apparently the guards at the gate, having received word that Torchwood was to be admitted, had not bothered mentioning that they had already arrived, probably on orders from their CO. The man had definitely been unimpressed by the way things were handled. Certainly the General who had apparently started the problem looked surprised when the two of them were waiting in front of the ship, the big, black SUV a menacing shape in the dim light.

“What are you doing here?” the man had blustered, his face red with some combination of anger and concern. Ianto thought he looked like an oversized toddler who had just been caught in the biscuit tin. That brought a brief thought of John, but he put it aside for the moment. The boy was safe with his sister.

“You invited me,” Jack said with a tight smile that most people who knew him recognised as a bad sign. Certainly the aides looked concerned.

“Well, yes,” he said slowly. “But you’re early. We haven’t even set up.” The man next to him, a wiry bloke in a lab coat and a rumpled shirt with a tie that had probably been chosen by his mother, started forward. The coat labelled him as the scientific adviser.

“Ianto, if anyone makes a move toward that ship, shoot them.”

“Yes sir,” he said, drawing the Glock from the shoulder holster. He would have preferred James Bond’s Walther PPK ,but he had discovered while Jack was helping him chose a sidearm that, despite what fiction would have you believe, it was just too small for his hands. Jack, whose hands were even bigger, couldn’t even fire it comfortably. Actually he could barely fire it period. As it was, the Glock worked well enough for everyday, a bit light, but it would do the job at these ranges.

“You wouldn’t,” the General said, stepping forward only to find himself facing the wrong end of the Webley Mark IV, the large, heavy revolver looking menacing in a way that few other firearms could manage, and a shark’s smile that most people were not stupid enough to challenge. The General stepped back, and the small contingent of UNIT soldiers had leveled weapons as well, but they didn’t look particularly comfortable.

“You’re outnumbered,” General Christian reminded him.

“Yes, but I have this,” he said pulling a small box from the greatcoat pocket. “Cordelane signal. Oh, just so you know, both our weapons have custom loads and they will still work just fine.”

“That’s…you can’t, that’s alien technology, how did you…” Christian blustered. Jack just looked at him, eyebrows raised slightly.

“You got it to work?” the scientist said, scuttling forward in fascination.

“How dare you threaten me?” The General said. “Torchwood has no authority here, you’re not even proper military at all.” Ianto held his breath and wondered if there was even the vaguest possibility of rescuing the man, then decided he really didn’t want to. It wasn’t like UNIT wasn’t aware of Jack’s history or his special ‘gift’. Some of them had been interested in getting hold of him for ‘research’ purposes. If it hadn’t been for the Queen and her predecessors, not to mention several high ranking friends in UNIT itself, they might had succeeded.

Jack took a deep breath and stepped toward the belligerent man, parade ground straight. “I’ve been retired from active duty longer than you’ve been alive. I saw the trenches of the Great War and World War II and have a drawer full of silverware for it, along with enough buried comrades to fill a football pitch. I’ve turned down more promotions than you will ever be offered. When you have that much time in grade you can talk to me about your definition of proper military.” General Christian stepped back. Jack’s voice had been low enough that only the two of them, an adjutant, and Ianto had heard but his tone had been enough to set them back. It wasn’t often Jack got drawn into that kind of ‘mine bigger than yours’ contest, but it was obviously what was effective.

General Christian deflated a bit, he had no response and he knew it. “Now, perhaps we can drop the pissing contest and get down to business,” Jack said, lowering his Webly just enough for everyone to take a breath.

The General nodded and the men slowly lowered their weapons as did Ianto, carefully holstering his Glock.

“Okay, now you can tell me why this ship, which I specifically told you had the potential to blow up a large chunk of the island, is being stored in one of the most populous parts of the country,” he said with what would have been one of his trademark grins if it had climbed higher than his lower lip.

General Christian had been more accommodating after that, but only because he was certain he was right. While Ianto had quietly opened the channel to the Hub to make sure they were recording everything, the scientific advisor had been explaining his position and showing his projections to Jack. He explained how someone in the Ministry, what Jack would call a bean counter if he was being polite and a few other things if he wasn’t, had read his work and pushed him to apply it to the Vrakian ship they were storing for Torchwood. Meanwhile, the Captain had placed a small capture device on the laptop to transmit his data to Tosh while the man was distracted and if necessary allow her to take control remotely.

“The problem with all of this,” Jack said slowly after giving the young man his attention. “Is that it’s all wrong.”

“What are you… It can’t…” the younger man started indignantly. Five minutes later Jack had gone beyond Ianto’s understanding and, from the looks on the rest of them, they were equally lost. The General looked annoyed and impatient and the science advisor looked like he was clinging to understanding just barely, and losing his grip. Ianto resisted the urge to grin. Jack was explaining it patiently, as if to a small and not particularly bright child. At least Dr. Neville, leave it to Jack to find out his name while calling him an idiot, seemed to be listening. Unfortunately the General wasn’t.

“This is all bollocks, get on with it. I want that ship opened.”

Dr. Neville, who had gone three shades paler beneath his dark hair while Jack finished talking, spoke up and for the first time Ianto noted the northern accent, more pronounced now that he was distressed. “Sir, perhaps we should run some more tests…” he started cautiously. “Obviously there are variables I had not…”

“That’s enough,” the man said, impatiently.

“General,” Jack said, voice oozing with insincere camaraderie. “Ignoring the fact that this thing belongs to Torchwood, not UNIT…” The man started to say something but Jack cut him off surgically. “Ignoring that for the moment and that you are determined to ignore Dr. Neville as well, I have set up a little demonstration. Ianto,” he called and the Welshman stepped up and began helping. Not completely sure what they were planning to use as a cutting torch, Jack had guessed, both at how much material and what to cut through with. Overall they were more than prepared to give them a simulation to sort them out, though having found out about the Arcatine cutting torch, Jack looked a little less confident. They took scans, confirming the material and concentrations were consistent, and setting up containment that Ianto could tell Jack wasn’t particularly sanguine about holding.

“Ianto, if it looks like…” he said quietly as they checked the last connections.

“I know what to do, Sir,” he said sharply ,but he could tell that Jack didn’t think he was taking the danger seriously enough. Ianto had slipped the contacts in carefully while setting up so that they could communicate with the Hub since the open video was only one way. They had planned for everything possible. The rest, well that would take care of itself.

Ianto was taking the danger seriously enough, at least he thought he was. On his wrist, the leather band was an ever present reminder, of both the danger and how far Jack would go to protect him. But he had no intention of leaving unless he really felt there was no option. If Jack hadn’t needed him, he knew he would be safely back at the Hub with Owen and Tosh, not to mention John. But Jack did need him, and he had no intention of budging. Besides, he didn’t trust the General as far as he could throw the Millennium Stadium one handed. He was afraid of what they would do to Jack if he was killed. It wouldn’t be the first time less than scrupulous forces inside UNIT made a try for him, and no amount of explaining that the accident that left him immortal was not replicable and that even if it were, it was a curse not a blessing, would get through to some people. If they couldn’t have the ship, he wouldn’t put it past them to make do with Jack.

“All right?” The words appeared at the bottom of his field of vision.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, nodding his head so they would get it. He looked down and shot the cuffs of his jacket, knowing that they would see it and know just how worried Jack was.

“WOW.”

 _Exactly_ , he thought.

“Ready, Ianto?” Jack asked. Ianto nodded, and blinked to let him know they were live. “OK, let’s do this,” He said, slipping the Cordelaine device to Ianto as he turned. Obviously Jack wasn’t too sure what they would do with him either and Ianto could picture himself like a terrier over its master’s body with his Glock and the device, holding off the might of UNIT, and the alien body armour Jack had forced him into when they stopped only made him feel a little better.

Jack tapped into the computer and after Dr. Neville confirmed his readings again, the soldiers were ordered back. “Don’t want anyone getting injured,” Jack said. “The object in the containment box is a piece of a different Vrakian ship that exploded trying to make an emergency landing near Aberystwyth back in ’68. Unfortunately there were no survivors, though seven foot tall green reptiles with vestigial wings would be difficult to hide, even in Wales. Lucky for us, they exploded high in the upper atmosphere, bright lights, big bang, and some funny weather, but no damage. If it had exploded on the ground it would have taken most of Wales with it.”

“So no loss there, then,” one of the soldiers remarked sarkily. Ianto shot him a dirty look while Jack continued.

“Now this particular type of radiation is neither incredibly long lasting, nor is it environmentally dangerous the way some others are, at least not on this planet, but it makes up for it with an unfortunate tendency to explode.”

“Then why do they use it?” one of Neville’s assistants asked. It seemed that since Jack was holding class they were going to take advantage, proof that at least some of them were interested in learning.

“Partially, it’s not their problem, it’s ours. They don’t have an oxygen rich atmosphere, so it’s much more stable, but also, this is mostly deprecated technology. These are old ships. If they hadn’t crashed, you wouldn’t have known anything about them. Now, I have a small amount of radiation-soaked material in the box. I think it’s part of the control stalk, but it’s hard to tell. The important thing is, that it’s had about forty years to decay, so it is about a third as strong as it was and proportionally equivalent to that ship over there. I’ll be controlling the torch from here, exactly like the one you want to use. You might want to back up some more.” Most of the crowd decided to take his advice.

General Christian stood impatiently beyond the station where Dr. Neville and Ianto both had their computers and monitoring equipment going full out. Jack was close to the blast screen and consequently the potential explosion but, as Jack had pointed out, since he was working the torch, he needed to see what he was doing. He said he preferred to do it by eye, as this needed more precision. Ianto wanted him to use cameras, but as Jack pointed out, there was no way to know if or when they would cut out.

“Get on with it,” the man shouted.

“Contact,” Jack said, starting the remote torch. “See ya’ in hell.”

“Readings at 4.5, 5.5,” Ianto said. “7.2. Jack, they’re climbin’ faster and we’re not through the outer casing. 15.8, 24.9, Jack…”

“Nothing’s going to…” the General started.

“Jack, the casing…” he shouted as the metal made a tearing sound.

“Weevils,” Jack shouted. Ianto flipped open the strap, his finger hovering for a moment over the button.

Then the world turned upside down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. You know what to do.


	20. Bully

“Bless, you two buy out the ice cream van? He’ll never eat all of that and where’d you get the money for it, young lady?” Rhia asked, as the two of them came in.

“Mr. Llewellyn gave it him,” the little girl said, around her own mouthful. Before her mother could ask further, she began her explaining. “It was because of that Davy Williams. He tried to thump us for our ice cream money.”

“You haven’t been fighting that lump, have you? I’ll not have it…”

“No Mum, John did it. Davy pushed him down, but John came up and bit him in the knee, then he kicked him, right in the goolies, good and hard.”

“Watch that language,” Rhia said absently as she turned to John and started looking him over. “You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked. John just shook his head. It was nice to be looked after and all, but he was trying to eat his chocolate ice cream.

“Anyway, Mr. Llewellyn saw, so did about half the close. He gave him the extra then. Mr. Llewellyn says it’s about time someone gave him one, thought it wasn’t nice to do. He says it’s the only way to deal with a bully before they get worse. Of course he always says that we shouldn’t be fighting. He gave Billy and his friends the business on account of them pushing the younger kids, but Billy don’t listen to no one and Davy wanting to be just like him. I told John he was a hero. I bet Uncle Ianto and his Da will be that proud.” All of this came out around licks of ice cream, and obviously part her mother’s opinion as well.

“I’ll be the one to tell Ianto and his Da, though. Don’t you go talking out of school, all right? Don’t want him thinking I let you all go getting into trouble, not like some mothers I could mention.” She seemed to be talking more to herself than them though. “I’m just glad you’re neither one hurt. I’m that tempted to give his Mum what for. She doesn’t know how to control those boys. They’ll both end up in trouble before they finish school. Go take those to the table and sit down before that ends up all over the carpet,” she said, apparently noticing that they were still standing in the middle of the lounge.

Micah started to lead John to the table when the pounding on the front door began. “Oh, for goodness sake,” Rhia swore. “Keep your hair on.”

When she pulled the door open, there was a man on the other side, very big, red faced, and angry, with a much younger and more familiar version behind him. He was obviously the father of the bully who tried to get their money and John stepped protectively in front of Micah. The man was a lot bigger than him, but John was already working out his tactics. Jack had said take care of them, and that was what he planned to do.

“Where’s that son of yours and his friends? I’ll…”

“David’s off with Johnny at the football practice, where he should be, not but what you’ve no call to look for him.”

“Da, it’s nothin’,” the boy said, tugging the man’s hand. He was red too, but probably more from shame than anything else. “It don’t…”

“It does matter, now where’s he hiding? I won’t stand for bullying; now you tell me…”

“ _You_ won’t stand for bullying? I’ll tell you a thing or two, Donny Williams,” Rhia said, fury blazing like a nuclear storm drive. John looked at her and decided that maybe he didn’t have to protect her after all. “Those boys of yours run wild all over this estate. Not like you would know, never around except the odd weekend any more, are you? Don’t have the least idea what your sons are up to. Billy, he’s a bully at the least, and running with a bad crowd, all got ASBOs, hanging out down by the shops thumping the little ones, and threatening the pensioners for their grocery money. Some of them have already been done for stealing and mischief, and this one’s trying to follow in his footsteps. Carys can’t control them, and she doesn’t much try anymore after Billy threatened her. He's that big enough that she's scared of him. Besides, she's too busy trying to find herself a new bloke to take care of her after you swanned off with that …” She paused, looking around at the children for a moment, then seemed to reconsider her words. “Anyway, no call blaming my son, he’s nothing to do with it, hadn’t even been home.”

“Then who hurt my boy?” he asked. Obviously the shock of what she’d said had made some kind of impression, though he didn’t look like he was completely convinced.

“He tried to take our money and he pushed John down,” Micah said, pointing to him. Clearly Micah wasn’t going to take it any more than her mum had. John wondered idly what Jack and Ianto would think if he taught her a couple of things, just for bullies, of course.

“Well, he didn’t…” Mr. Williams said. Davy was looking even redder, eyeing the door as if wondering how fast he could crawl out, but his Da had his arm.  

  
“John bit him in the knee and then…” she paused, clearly not wanting to get another telling off for her language.

“I kicked him in his…” the burst of static swallowed the rest but the hand gesture more than made up for it.  

  
“It’s not possible, you’re lying. There’s no way my son did any of that.”

“Ask anyone,” Micah said, pulling herself up, one hand on her hip in unconscious imitation of her mother. “Mr. Llewellyn saw it, so did Sean and Gethin over the road and Johnny and Kate from number 7,” the little girl told him, smiling. Davy twitched, his face getting redder, seeming to gain all the colour that was draining away from his father’s face.

“This true? You really bullyin’ little girls, getting in trouble, and Billy too?”

“I didn’t do nothing, not like Billy. I haven’t nicked anything, or well, nothing big, like trying to…” he stopped, realising that he was only making it worse.

“Car. Now,” his father said, before turning back to Rhia, still in full blush of her anger. “I didn’t know, honestly. I came to take him to the pictures and he was looking sick, I didn’t think.” He stopped.

“About time you did, then, isn’t it?” she said, giving him a hard look. Without another word, the man left, a good bit quieter than he had come. “Well, that’s that then. Now, you two, get to the table and finish, though with all that, no doubt you’ll have spoiled your tea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, thank you for your comments, kudos and all that, which keeps me going. Hope you enjoy this little bit.


	21. Explosives

Ianto coughed and picked himself up from the ground, shaking his head to clear it. Around him, soldiers and scientists alike were doing the same. Jack! The thought ran through him like lightning. He was moving before he was even aware of it, round the station, not even bothering to stop and pick up the laptop from where it had gone over, his only concern his lover.

The waste ground was…well, it was still there, most of it. The blast had gone like a shaped charge, taking out the containment screens and blowing pieces of the box all over the yard. One corner, probably opposite the breech, was sitting incongruously upright some distance beyond the toppled shielding. He took this all in instantaneously, a snapshot. Ianto was good at that, noting details to be recorded later as he made his way to where Jack had last been. “Are you all right?” flashed across the bottom of his vision. _Damn contacts_ , he thought, but at the moment he didn’t care. He needed to find Jack.

The largest of the containment screens was on the ground, the material shattered by what appeared to be the impact of the remote controlled torch. Ianto grabbed the edge of the heavy frame, trying to lift it himself. Before he had got it more than a foot, another pair of hands joined his. He looked up and one of the soldiers, the one who had commented disparagingly on his home country, was helping him. They managed to get it upright before two others joined them, taking it from Ianto so he could begin shifting the pieces.

All he could think of was Jack, waking covered in dirt and alone. Ianto didn’t know if his lover was alive or dead, but he was sure he was going to be there when he woke up. Never again, he told himself and shifted another piece. There he was, the dark hair grey with dirt in a way it probably never would in his lifetime. Jack had turned just as the blast had hit, taking the blast sidewise instead of full on.

At least with Jack in view, the increasingly frantic messages had stopped scrolling across the bottom of his field of vision, trying to distract him. Ianto vaguely heard someone call for a medic as he knelt to check his lover’s pulse. Unmindful of the dirt, he sat down and lifted Jack’s head onto his knee. Someone was trying to move him to reach Jack, but he shook them off. Pulling out his handkerchief, Ianto wiped away as much of the dirt from his fortunately undamaged face as he could. If he had his stop watch he could have timed it. Impact trauma, shock to the heart, probably internal bleeding, head trauma. Any moment now. He didn’t want to think about the organs knitting themselves, the bones reconnecting. Ianto could almost feel it, like a tingling in the air, then the sudden intake of air. Before he knew what he was doing he leaned over and sealed his lips to Jack’s. Ianto wasn’t sure what made him do it. There on a field full of soldiers with the whole team watching through his eyes, he kissed Jack Harkness.

After a brief moment that seemed to last at least a year, Jack kissed him back. _Let them think it’s the kiss of life,_ part of his brain whispered. _It is,_ another voice seemed to reply. “All right?” he said as he released him.

“Yeah,” Jack replied, coughing a little. Someone handed Ianto a bottle of water which he held for the immortal as he eased him up into a better position.

The medics were waved off, though they appeared reluctant to go until Jack, with Ianto’s help, picked himself off the ground. “Sir, you should get checked out, you’re…”

“I’m fine, body armour,” he said, tapping his chest. Fortunately they couldn’t tell beneath coat, shirt and vest, that the captain was lying through his perfect teeth.

 

“Everything put away?” Jack said, his voice so close that he gave him a start.

“All taken care of, Sir.” There was a tension between them and Ianto hated it, but he wasn’t about to let go of this and neither was Jack. So instead they would ignore it, finish the job and then have their disagreement and a large disagreement at that. He knew what Jack thought and he wasn’t alone. Owen- he knew it was Owen , it could only be him, had messaged a couple of four letter epithets to that effect after Jack had come back. Ianto knew that neither of them would believe that he hadn’t pressed the button because there was no time, certainly he didn’t believe it himself. Jack had to learn to trust his judgement. But that would be settled later.

For now, the lunch break was finished and they would go back to sorting out the situation. After the near disaster, the base commander wanted the ship gone immediately, if not sooner and General Christian was not far behind them. One thing Ianto would give the man, once he knew he was wrong, he was ready to listen and make it right. Transport had been ordered, and Jack had agreed to help supervise, along with giving Dr. Neville some pointers on handling the unusual radiation and sparking some ideas that had the scientific advisor huddled in the corner with his computers and a couple of equally excited assistants. Meanwhile, the afternoon was to be devoted to working up protocols. They had all been played by those who had no real understanding of what was at stake, and the general was eager enough to make up for it.

Then there was the Ministry bean counter who had started all this. Whether it was deliberate or not, someone was putting their nose where it didn’t belong, with the same kind of disregard that had allowed Canary Wharf to happen. It would be up to Ianto to ferret out the culprit and the reason, not to mention any outside connections that might be involved. Once he had the information, they could set about ruining someone’s day, possibly several someones. Jack had enough contacts and was owed enough favours that whoever it was would be lucky to avoid time in a certain unknown detention facility. Ianto personally felt time in a cell next to Janet would do them a world of good. She was old and harmless, but still scared the piss out of those who didn't know her.

For now they needed to deal with the storage facility itself and its contents. Commander Rooney, suddenly less sanguine about the safety of the things he was guarding, had asked if Jack would take a look through, with an eye toward things likely to explode in spectacular fashion. Christian had seemed like he would object, the traditional rivalry and ingrained secrecy warring with the sure knowledge that something blowing this close to London would be spectacularly bad. In the end, safety and curiosity won out. Ianto closed the boot and followed the older man back inside, making a note to call his sister; John would need to stay one more night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, hope you like the next bit. Meanwhile back on the ranch.


	22. Fighting

“Tha’s your Da,” Rhia called, putting the phone back on its cradle. “They’re going to be a bit later than what they thought. I told ‘im just to get you tomorrow. Thaz’s all right, yeah?” John looked up and agreed after a moment, before returning to what he was doing.

Once David had returned from his football with his friend Gareth and another couple of buckets of Legos, they had started back on the space station, or whatever it was they were building. With all four of them working on it, the construction had already taken almost all the free space in the lounge. They were working relatively quiet for a bunch of kids, helping out John when the small boy, who in some ways was so far ahead of his age, couldn’t make things work. Rhia reflected that, while he was fantastically smart for his age, his strength and coordination were still more or less what they ought to be, at least mostly. He had taken a bit of a tumble earlier, trying to climb over the back of the settee after Micah. He’d been fine, or so he said. Stoic, that’s what they would call him if he was older, a bit like Ianto really. He’d never been much of a crier, not that Dad would have really put up with it. Watching them now, she wondered what he would have said if he’d lived.

Ianto’d grown up to something important with the tourist board. Oh, he played it down, said he just ran a tourist information kiosk, but she knew better. Typical really, her little brother, understating things, but you didn’t get the money for those suits of his from managing a tourist kiosk, nor that nice car, and he could usually be counted on for tickets when something was worth it. He even managed to get Johnny those rugby final tickets last year when no one had them, and most of the time he didn’t care for Johnny. But what Dad would have thought of Jack and all, that was another thing entirely. Not that Dad had ever said anything against them. Actually she couldn’t remember him ever saying anything about it one way or another. Mum, though, that was a different matter. She hadn’t cared about what their Mum would or wouldn’t have thought about anything in a very long time though, she wasn't like to start now. Rhia wondered if Ianto had seen her up at the Bay. She’d never asked and he wouldn’t say. Would she even remember them anymore? Did she even care? Or would she ignore them, try to pretend they didn’t exist as she had for so long?

“No, it’s like this… Nooos Daa,” Micah said, exaggerating the sound while Gareth laughed. The boy hadn’t been sure, seeing John, about playing with a little kid, but once he had seen what they were doing, he settled right down, only commenting that they should have invited Evan, as he had more legos than anyone.

“You should learn. My teacher says it’s important on account of our cult heritage.”

“Tha’s cultured heritage,” Gareth joined in.

“Yeah, it means when we weren’t allowed to speak anything but English so they’d know about rebels and stuff. But it's not the same Micah, John’s not Welsh, are you mate?” Before the little boy could answer, focused as he was on getting two red blocks together, Micah was back in it.

“Doesn’t matter, Uncle Ianto is, and if he’s going to be his other Da, then that makes him half Welsh, yeah?”

Unable or unwilling to challenge the little girl, David and Gareth just nodded and went on with their bricks. “That’s not the brilliant part though. The brilliant bit is that most of the grown ups round here didn’t have it at school, so it’s like a secret code.”

“Yeah,” David popped in, “Mum don’t speak it, not at all. Uncle Ianto might, but he knows lots of things.”

“My gran understood it, she’s really old, but she’s off to the infirmary now. She has the Alzheimer’s, where she forgets things and thinks I’m me uncle. Mam never learned, said it wasn’t taught and Gran didn’t have time, with all of them to teach ‘em.”

“Good with codes,” John said, then cocked his head to the side a bit, as if this needed more thinking about.

“John, all right love?” she called from the kitchen. They all looked at her, as if they had forgotten she was there, probably had. The little boy just smiled and went back to what he was doing, handing the piece he had just put together to Gareth to add to the main structure.

 

They left the base far later then they wanted to. Commander Rooney had invited them for dinner and since Gwen said that everything was quiet and John was safe and sound at Rhia’s, it didn’t seem politic to refuse, or maybe they just felt like postponing the inevitable fight.

It was well into the evening when they finally left, having managed to make some useful and positive contacts and with a promise of a reciprocal visit. Jack had been his usual charming self at dinner and Ianto had managed to keep up his end, though with Jack there, it didn’t take much. The Commander’s wife was lovely and an excellent cook and they were able to enjoy a pleasant dinner, if not footloose at least weevil free.

The first part of the trip was accomplished in an only slightly tense atmosphere. Jack had asked Ianto to drive, a sign of just how tired he actually was, though he would never admit it. Ianto also knew that death took it out of him. Jack would finish, get the job done, but then he would sleep, a real deep sleep, untroubled by the nightmares that were why he usually avoided it. Ianto really wished that Jack would sleep now. He hated fighting and driving at the same time.

As the lights of London’s sprawl began to fade behind them, Ianto glanced over to find Jack watching him. The blue eyes were hooded, cautious, and the younger man found himself bracing for what was to come. He knew that Jack had his reasons. The immortal loved him, Ianto knew that, and Jack hated it when he was in danger. They also both knew that if he tried to use it to keep Ianto out of the line of fire, the relationship would fall apart in short order. Regardless, they both did everything they could to protect one another and the rest of the team. That wasn’t anything to do with their relationship, that was just good sense. So they drove in silence, each of them shoring up his arguments for why they were the one who was right.

“Ianto,” Jack said finally.

Ianto sighed and tried not to roll his tired eyes. He’d hoped that the immortal had gone to sleep. He hated arguing when he was driving, always had, and there was no way this wasn’t going to end in an argument.

“You had your orders, why didn’t you…”

“Is that how you’re going to play it, Jack? Orders?” Ianto interrupted him, voice clipped.

“What else am I supposed to say? If I said it was to keep you safe, you’d accuse me of letting our relationship get in the way of the job. I can’t win here, can I?”

“You could trust me to make these decisions for myself. Trust, you remember that concept, yeah?”

“I do trust you, just…”

“Just what, Jack? Just when it’s about office supplies or the right coffee to buy? Or maybe when I let you talk me into a…”

“You know it’s not like that,” Jack spat back.

“Do you really want to do this now, Jack? Wouldn’t you rather put it off, maybe until you can try to shag me into compliance?”

“That’s not fair. I’m not the one who insists on having a fight on a dark motorway while one of us is driving and we’re both exhausted. If I don’t want to do it now, maybe it’s because I don’t want anything to happen.”

 “Fine,” Ianto said, and turned to study the road in front of them with far more concentration than it deserved. He knew they were both acting like children, but he wasn’t going to be the one to apologise. Not this time, when he hadn’t done anything wrong; he had made a snap judgement, that was all.

“Fine.” Jack closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. The tension in the vehicle mounted steadily though. Ianto felt as if it was going to suffocate him, or that he would start screaming, possibly both, when they passed the sign for a transport café, hotel and petrol. He looked at the gauges. They could use a top off and perhaps getting a room wasn’t a bad idea. Ianto’s eyes were gritty, he was tired, sore, and had dirt in places he didn’t want to think about. He’d had a quick wash up at the base, but it wasn’t the same.

“You want to stop?” Jack asked, obviously having the same thought.

“Could do,” he replied noncommittally, not willing to give an inch.

“Sleep would probably do you some good.”

Ianto just snorted, not ready to just let things drop, but not really willing to pick them up again. They pulled off and up to the petrol pump.

“Fine, I’ll get the room,” Jack said, jumping out and walking across the macadam before Ianto could say a word, his long coat flowing behind him in that heroic way that usually brought a smile to the younger man’s face. Tonight it only annoyed him. He released his safety belt and went to fill the tank.

By the time he’d finished and picked up some truly awful coffee in the café, Jack was standing outside the office, waving him into a parking space. The black SUV was one of only three vehicles in the parking lot. The place was a fairly standard hotel, neither high end nor low. He wouldn’t want to make a holiday here, but he probably wouldn’t feel the need to sleep in a decontamination suit either. Ianto immediately got out and grabbed their bag, the one he had packed just in case. It always paid to be prepared, especially with Torchwood.

“Here’s a key. I’m going to take a walk,” Jack said, and turned and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kind comments. Please enjoy the next part. Updates are going to be a littls slow as I'm back on the road again tomorrow, but I will be back, I promise.


	23. Making Up

Ianto wasn’t sure whether he was angry or not. He didn’t really want to argue with Jack, not now, certainly, but he didn’t want to give in either. As tired as he was, he wasn’t even sure which of them was right anymore. After all, Jack was right, if he died, that was it. But he couldn’t do his job if he felt like Jack was trying to protect him, or at least trying to protect him more than usual. At that point, his logic train broke down. Ianto unpacked the bag, and headed for the shower. Maybe he would be able to think better when he was clean, and maybe, just maybe, Jack would be back.

Ianto stepped back into the room, half expecting to find Jack sprawled on one of the two beds. Ok, hoping, if he was honest with himself. He felt better now that he was clean. Ianto had stayed in the shower far longer than was strictly necessary, relaxing under the hot spray and maybe, just maybe, expecting Jack to come slipping in behind him, apologising with kisses and whispered suggestions. He had stayed until his fingers and toes were waterlogged and he was wondering if he was taxing even the hotel’s water heating capability.

But there was still no Jack. Ianto really wished he could not care, but in spite of Jack’s immortality, he did care. He worried even now, when he was angry with him.

The room was equipped with a kettle and a choice of tea and the sort of ‘coffee’ that came in packets. He’d already placed his stomach in enough danger drinking the café coffee he’d bought while filling up, so he decided the tea was safer. Besides, wasn’t tea the sovereign remedy for everything? It had been when he was a kid, tea for a cold, for a fight with the bully over the road, his Dad even made them tea when he sat down to tell them that Mum had gone. Not that it had been a surprise, they’d all known how unhappy she’d been, she’d not held back telling Dad what a useless tosser he was or her scornful belief that they’d be the same.

Ianto was just sitting down on one of the beds, wondering what on earth had brought all that on. He’d not thought about his mother much in years, save the one time he’d seen her at the Plas on the CCTV, out with her new toney friends, perfectly coiffed and dressed. But all thought of her fled as he heard the electronic lock on the door disengage. He thought about his weapon, safely stowed under the bed pillows, but if it wasn’t Jack, he had more than enough training to deal with a common housebreaker, and besides, he was so tired, he just didn’t care.

But it was Jack, looking slightly damp, with a carrier bag. “Started raining,” he said by way of explanation. “This might help that…tea?” he questioned. Ianto nodded. “Might help it go down. There’s an off license next door.”

“Couldn’t find a roof then?” Ianto asked and instantly regretted it. He didn’t want to fight with Jack, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. Jack paused and pulled the bottle out of the bag, getting another mug off the table.

“Nope, hotel’s as tall as it gets here. Besides, I discovered I really didn’t want to be alone as much as I thought.” He took his time opening the bottle and pouring amber liquid into the mug before offering Ianto the bottle. The younger man poured a healthy slug into his tea and said nothing. At this point it was probably better, since he couldn’t seem to stop himself from saying something he didn’t mean.

“Ianto, I don’t want to fight, but do you understand how afraid I am?” he said finally, not looking at the younger man.

“You, afraid? Never.”

“Is that what you think, really?”

“I don’t know, you keep a lot in,” the younger man said, quietly. Ianto wasn’t sure what to say. This was what he wanted, the two of them talking, and now he didn’t know what it was he wanted to say.

“I’m sorry about that. It’s not easy. For a long time I was afraid of sharing, of letting my guard down. It seemed like every time I did…” he trailed off. Jack looked miserable, standing in the middle of the room, still wearing his coat, drinking whiskey from a tea mug. Ianto knew about the Doctor and Rose, about his wife, well, wives, the one who’d died on him and the other, the Torchwood operative who thought she could handle it, only to come to hate him. She left him, taking his daughter with her, not to mention some of the others, the long list in the last century who had loved and left him, died or gone. That was Jack. No matter how he tried, eventually, he always gave his heart away again, and he always would.

“Are you going to take off your coat and stay?” he asked, looking up.

“I wasn’t sure I was welcome,” Jack admitted.

“Stay.” Jack nodded and set the cup down before sliding out of his big topcoat. He was damp, and while he had also had a wash at the base, he’d got a lot more dirt filtering into his clothes and his hair. He looked tired, dirty, and discouraged, not a look that Ianto was used to seeing on his face. “A shower wouldn’t go amiss either. We have fresh clothes.”

“I thought you wanted…”

“We can talk, but first you should get cleaned up.”

“Will you…” Jack started to say, and Ianto could see it: Jack was still afraid, still wondering how much damage he had done to them.

“I’ll be right here when you’re done. Jack, I’m not going to leave. I’m not happy at the moment, but we’re both rubbish with talking. Blokes just don’t. I understand that. I feel a right nana every time I try.”

“I should be better, but I’m not; I think I’ve been around here too long. One step at a time, I suppose. Ianto, regardless of what an arse I’m being, I really mean it, I just want you safe, and right now with John… I can’t do it alone. What if I have to raise him? It’s not like we can just put him out to…” Jack was finally breaking down, Ianto could tell. They’d finally found the end of his rope. He was off the bed, with an arm around the older man before he could say another word.

“We’ll sort it. You don’t think I’d trust you to raise that miniature psychopath on your own, do you? Now, shower, and then you can show me how much you appreciate me, yeah?”

“Make up sex?” Jack said, hopefully.

“If you are lucky.”

“How about you join me in the shower? You could help make sure my back is clean, and I could start that making up,” he said suggestively.

“I don’t think so.  Shower now, and hurry before I go to sleep.” Jack was in the bathroom before he took another sip of his tea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for continuing to read. Please comment and all that good stuff.


	24. After the Shower

When Jack came back into the room, Ianto was still awake, laying back in the bed waiting for him. He’d pulled the pillows off the other bed and stacked them behind him, and unpacked some necessary supplies on the night stand. Jack had nothing but a towel on, draped around his narrow waist, water still beading lightly on his skin. It was a sight that never failed to raise his heartbeat. 

“So about that make up…”

“Suggest you get started then,” Ianto said. “We’ll see where it goes.” Looking at his lover already had him tingling with excitement in a way that no one else managed even, as much as he hated to admit it, Lisa. Not that he hadn’t loved her, or wouldn’t have been happy with her, but that was a life that could never be and on the whole he had got over it.

“Ianto,” Jack questioned, sliding next him in the bed. It wasn’t as big as the one in their room at home, but it would do. “Would you like to pay attention while I’m making up?” he said, turning the younger man to him, before pressing a kiss just next to his mouth.

“You’ve got…” he started before Jack’s mouth swallowed the rest of what he was going to say in a long slow kiss. 

“That’s better,” Jack whispered as he transferred his attention to his partner's jaw. Ianto groaned inwardly, while he could still put two thoughts together. Jack was in that mood. He’d make up to him until all Ianto could do was beg. He hoped sincerely that no one was in the rooms on either side of them. Then he stopped being able to think coherently at all.

It was those kisses that did it, turning him inside out. It was Jack’s kiss that had started it all really. Jack had a way of putting everything into a kiss. When Ianto had come to Cardiff, he’d known it might be necessary to seduce Jack Harkness. He’d done his homework, and he knew the man’s reputation. He’d only hoped he could catch his eye but then Jack didn’t seem to have a type, or a preference for that matter. 

After they caught Myfanwy, it had been easier. Jack was obviously attracted to him, so that was one question settled. They flirted, but Jack never pushed, always hovering just on the edge. Then one night when Ianto thought the tension was going to make him crawl out of his skin, Jack had brushed up against him, trying to shelve something back while Ianto was trying to get him out of the archives. It had all been too much, he’d done it, he’d pushed Jack against the shelf and kissed him.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, Jack to jump him right there like a wild animal on a piece of meat? Instead Jack kissed him back, long and slow. Ianto didn’t think he’d ever been more thoroughly kissed, and he’d never been kissed by another bloke, or expected to and enjoy it. Right at that moment he wanted more, but Jack had smiled and backed off. 

Then he’d asked him a question. “You sure about this?”

Ianto didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t sure about anything. 

“You’ve been through a lot,” the older man told him, and he remembered that Jack thought Lisa dead. “Love and grief make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Not that I’m not appreciative, I haven’t exactly made any secret about the fact that I’m attracted to you, Ianto Jones, but I want you because you want to be here with me, not because you feel like you need to. I’ve had my share of loss too, if you want to talk, we can do that. But don’t make an offer that you’re not sure you want to go through with, just because you think that’s what it’ll take. If all you want is a warm body just so you aren’t alone, I can work with that, but you have to really want it.”

“I… I don’t know,” he said finally, embarrassed, looking anywhere but at the older man in front of him.

“That’s okay, I’ll still be around when you do.” And so it went, they flirted, maybe a little harder depending, but always he could see that question in Jack’s eyes and he knew that simply seducing Jack wasn’t the answer he was looking for. 

It seemed so long ago now, with the two of them in this hotel bed, Jack slowly melting his brain with kisses and caresses. He had lost his tee shirt, though he couldn’t remember actually taking it off, and Jack was slowly turning his muscles to silly putty. “Roll over,” Jack whispered, tugging at his boxers. Ianto blinked at him.

“Roll over, I’ll give you a massage,” Jack said. Gods, after everything today, Jack was awake now. 

“Hmmmm,” he said, wondering how he could be so tired and so turned on at the same time. With a little help from Jack he found himself face down on the bed without his boxers. One of these days, he was going to figure out exactly how his lover managed that, but this was not that day. Obviously Jack was determined about his make up efforts; either that or he was trying to make Ianto forget that he was ever upset in the first place. But since they had both been mad at each other, he was wondering exactly what he would have to do; of course Jack was the easily forgiving type, especially when it was something this easy to sort. They were both wrong, and that was the end of it. Oh, there would be discussion and some wrangling over exactly how to handle things in future, but it was much easier when they were both relaxed. 

The strong hands were warm and slick with oil when they came back to his skin. Ianto opened one eye, but he knew he hadn’t brought any massage oil. That was Jack, his talented hands found every knot and tight muscle, even the ones that he hadn’t known still hurt. Then his mouth followed his hands, with kisses and a nibble at the spot below his ear that made him ache. “Jack…”

“Hmmmm? Am I forgiven yet?”

“It was never like that. I just don’t want you second guessing every decision I make.”

“I know that, the truth is, if you just gave in, I wouldn’t…” He paused, and Ianto turned and tried to look over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t love you, I probably would have gotten bored pretty quickly, honestly. But you challenge me, you stand up to me, and you are strong enough to put up with me. Do you know how much that means to me? I know I don’t say it enough, but…”

“Jack, hush,” he said. He wanted to turn and put his arms around his lover, but Jack was still straddling him, leaning close to him. “Right now, all I want you to do is say that you understand why I was angry, that we will discuss it tomorrow, and get back to what you were…yeassssss,” Ianto trailed off as the man started with the last request first. So very Jack. 

“Yes, I understand,” he whispered, kissing his way down Ianto’s back. “Yes, we can discuss it tomorrow and…” he trailed off, nipping a tender spot on Ianto’s thigh. The younger man arched off the bed, but Jack continued what he was doing. He shifted off of Ianto and turned to spread his legs, nibbling and kissing his way down the inside of one thigh and up the other. “Now,” he said, stopping completely and sliding up his body, “what I want at this exact moment is you.”

“Thought you ‘ad me,” Ianto said, slightly breathlessly, casting a eye over the evidence. 

“Well yes, but not what I meant. I need to feel you, right now, inside me.” The look on his handsome face was a combination of desire and a need that Ianto knew so well.

“Yes, Sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please tell me what you think,nah at you like and don't like.


	25. Home Again

Ianto woke to the acrid smell of bad coffee mingled with the familiar and much more pleasant scent of Jack Harkness. “Morning sleepy, sorry about the coffee, it was the best they had,” he said as he dropped onto the bed next to him. Ianto took the cup, grimaced at the smell, and took a sip. Yep, it was as bad as he expected. He turned to his lover for a morning kiss to mitigate some of it.

“That’s better,” he said. Jack grinned. “Suppose we should get goin’. Let me have a shower and we’ll be on our way. Unless you’d care to join me?” He didn’t need to ask twice, Jack was already out of his braces, unbuttoning his shirt even as Ianto slid out of the bed.

The young Welshman took his time adjusting the taps, he hated getting a face full of cold water. Jack was not far behind him, looking much better. While it hadn’t gone to plan, last night after they made up, they had talked, really talked. And after that, they had made love, slow and intense, the kind of physical reconnecting that relationships need and they had been short of since John Hart had been, well, whatever he had been.

“Come on,” Jack said, breaking into his reverie. “As much as we don’t want to, we should probably get back.”

“Yep, world doesn’t save itself.”

“I was more thinking of saving your sister from John,” Jack said as he dragged his lover into the shower.

An hour later, pressed and dressed, well, dressed at least, they were back on the road. A quick call to the Hub and his sister ascertained that everything was okay as they drove back. Monday morning traffic had cleared by the time they reached the city.

Rhi opened the door with a smile. “’e’s fine, woke up with a bit of headache, poor love, so I gave ‘im one of those tablets of his. He’s laying down on the settee,” she said as she waved them both into the lounge. “Not much to do with Micah and David off to school. But they left their space base up, so you could see,” she chattered brightly. “Took the whole lounge and not sure how they are going to sort out whose blocks they are. John, your Da’s here.”

John Hart jumped up from the couch, though a little more slowly than usual, probably the headache pills. Jack picked him up and hugged him and the little boy threw his arms round the immortal’s neck. 

At the moment it was hard to remember that John was ever anything other than a small, frightened boy. “All right?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, head hurts, want to go home.” Hearing John Hart call the Hub home was a little startling and looking into Jack’s eyes he could see he felt the same. 

“Show your Da your, well, whatever it is, while I get your things. Ianto, help me,” she half asked, half ordered the way she did. He followed her, while John pointed to the extensive Lego project.

“You built an entire Sylesian colony base?” he heard Jack as they left them to it.

“Here,” his sister said, handing him the hold all. “I put a couple extra pair of trainers that Jenny next door had for her boy only he grew out of them almost as soon as he’d got them broke in. She was about to take them to the Oxfam but sent them along when she found out about John.” He started to refuse, but his sister overrode him. “Couple pair of jeans as well, you don’t know this yet but at that age, they wear through or grow out of clothes that fast,” she said. “It don’t much pay to get good things. Now you take this to the car. He’s had his breakfast, didn’t eat as much, but it’s probably the headache. I’m sure he’ll be right back on his food…” His sister continued to ramble on, following him to the SUV where she supervised the reinstallation of his child seat and the stowing of the hold all. Ianto took John from Jack with no complaint from either of them. John didn’t even object to being strapped into the seat, as they said their goodbyes and drove off. 

“All right Jack?” he asked, as they pulled onto the main road.

Jack looked back to see that John had dozed off. “He built an entire space base out of Legos with the help of your niece and nephew and some friends. He knows every technical detail but he can’t tell when we met. I know Owen said it was going to be that way but still…”

“Disconcerting?”

“Yeah, I don’t know what to do.”

“Maybe the team will have something when we get back?” he said hopefully, but somehow he doubted it.

Their arrival at the Hub was rendered a lot more exciting than anyone expected when Andy Davidson called them to report a group of hostile…well he wasn’t exactly sure what, but they had them locked in an abandoned warehouse and could they possibly come and get them before they got loose?

Jack sighed and Ianto, who was carrying the sleeping boy, handed him off to Owen, much to the deceased medic's shock. “I’ll empty the SUV,” he said. Jack nodded and hurried to look at the information scrolling across Tosh’s computer screen.  
Ianto had everything neatly to the side when Jack and the rest came out into the underground garage, arguing with Toshiko while Gwen moved to the passenger door.

“Jack, you can’t keep me on desk duty forever…”

“Owen might…” 

“Owen can handle John himself, at least at that size. There are too many for the three of you. I’ll coordinate from the SUV.”

“Get in,” Jack said sharply. Gwen gave Ianto a smile, yep, they both knew how it was going to end. “Gwen, call your husband, we may need to rent a van, again.”

“Already done,” she said. “’e’s standing by for us.” Jack Harkness just nodded as he pulled back out onto the road to a speed just this side of health and safety. Ianto always considered that if it wasn’t the aliens, Jack’s driving would probably kill him. Not that he actually ever hit anything, but the close calls were enough to do his heart a mischief.

In the end it had been a relatively simple, if annoying, task. Tosh had tracked the alien’s life signs from the SUV and they had them rounded up right quick. They were vaguely humanoid, and Jack managed, once they were rounded up, to explain that no, this was not some new weapon on the part of their enemies, that yes, he would do what he could to get them back home. They loaded them into the van, meanwhile Ianto and Andy with the mildest of retcon managed to convince the extra coppers he’d borrowed to cordon off the area, that it was a security training exercise and they’d done a wonderful job, and they cleared off with much slapping of backs while Torchwood tried to figure out what to do with their guests.

After Tosh took a whole lot of readings and consulting of the Rift predictor program, they all loaded up and drove out to Barry, where they managed to send them back to their own world in time to get back to the Hub for tea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, as always. Please enjoy.


	26. Returning

“John’s sleeping,” Owen said when they came in.

“Ok, briefing, conference room, in fifteen?” Jack said, looking at his team to establish whether the time frame would work for everyone. There were nods all around and Ianto went to put away their things before making the coffee he knew they’d all need.

He spotted Jack heading down to autopsy to check on the boy and smiled. “ _Jack really was a good father,_ ” he thought, then instantly regretted it. Did he really want to be a father, or rather the other father, to anyone, much less that miniature alien psychopath?

But then, he’d thought about it before, when Lisa was alive, why was it different with Jack? Besides that he was a man, immortal, and that was certainly more domestic than they’d considered, at least than he had. Well. this was certainly not the time for it, he decided, taking the coffee into the conference room.

Jack turned up a few minutes later with John behind him.

“You want some milk?” Ianto asked.

“Why would I want any of that, hate cow juice, no matter what kind o’ cow, Jack. You tryin’ to poison me…” The rest of what he had to say trailed off onto bursts of static, punctuated with rude gestures and the odd word that left no doubt that Jack was getting a piece of his mind. “…not since I got that lot on Raxell XII, the stuff not meant for humanoid life forms…”

“You remember?” Jack said in shock.

“Of course I do, booted all over the…” then he stopped, his eyes closed. “I remember getting sick, but you and me were there for… I don’t…”

“Don’t push it,” Owen warned. “Looks like something is starting to come back. OK, half pint, time for more readings, see what’s happening in there,” the doctor said, standing up. John looked at him, clearly wanting to stay.

“You want to get this over with? If we wait 'til after the meeting, it’ll mean that much longer 'til you get some dinner. I’ll keep the comm open,” Owen said on his way out the door.

“Now about that meeting…” Ianto said, trying to get everyone back on track.

“But Jack,” Gwen started.

“Ianto’s right, Owen can brief us when he’s done.  Meanwhile, lets go over everything that’s happened here in the last 36 hours or so, and we will give you the rest of our adventures with UNIT.”

 

“Well, looks like everything is normal in that head of yours, kid,” Owen said. “Or as normal as it started. Just another random memory. Did anything else come up? Remember your parents names, or your birthday? Possibly your planet of birth? Before this job, that was a question I never thought I would have to ask,” he asked, clearly not expecting an answer.

“Brugellian,” John said absently. “Just out from the core, short hop from New Earth, really. My head hurts.”

“Ok, kiddo,” Owen said, trying to keep his surprise out of his voice. “I’ll give you something for your head in just a minute. Jack, you got that?”

“Heard it, and yeah, it’s correct, at least, as far as I know. That’s what he’s always said, and it’s where I met his family. Don’t ask.”

“OK, well, I’m almost done, then we’d best feed him.”

Dinner was the usual noisy affair. Owen had handed over John and headed back to autopsy and the boy was quieter than usual because of the pain killers but overall it was normal, or what had become normal, or would have been if Jack and Ianto hadn’t both been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Owen clearly had more to say but didn’t want to say it in front of everyone. There weren’t often issues of confidentiality with Torchwood, but in this case, Owen seemed to be playing it close to the vest.

Once Gwen and Rhys had left and Tosh had returned to her computer, muttering something about chronon discharges, and rift energy, the doctor settled himself at the conference table with the two men. “Normally, wouldn’t be discussin’ patient issues wif anyone else, but since ‘e’s a child to all intents and purposes, you’re what passes for his parents. Good news is ‘is memory, it’s coming back in bits, which is the right way, less shock.”

“What’s the bad news?” Ianto asked, looking quickly at Jack. John was sprawled asleep in his lap.

“Well, that’s where it gets a bit difficult. He’s aging at a normal rate, more or less, accounting for a slight biological difference. Whatever happened to him, it doesn’t seem to be an effect that wears off, rather a permanent change.”

“Shit,” Jack said. Ianto mutely nodded. The implications, the possibility that the would have to deal with him for the next fourteen years or so, especially with his memory restored, was slightly more than terrifying.

“And that’s not the worst part of it,” Owen said.

“It gets worse?” Ianto said, unconvinced.

“These headaches, this pain is related to his memory. Right now, with all of his knowledge still intact, he’s at about the maximum of what his brain can handle, given its current development. I don’t know how long or how much more he can take without permanent brain damage and eventually, death.”

“Options,” Jack said, his voice quiet, even, and controlled, but both of the other men knew him better. Ianto reached out and put one hand on Jack’s.

“Not sure, we could try ret con, but that’s gonna be tricky, and I’m not sure, need to run some simulations. Don’t suppose we got anything in the archive that would age ‘im?”

“Think I wouldn’t have already thought off that?” Ianto snapped.

“Figured, too easy.”

“Might not work anyway,” Jack said absently. “Depends on how it works. How much time do we have?”

“A few days, maybe a week, before it's permanently debilitating.” Jack nodded, eyes closed.

“Run the simulations, we’ll see what Tosh has to say. Meanwhile, I’m going to have to consider getting a second opinion.”

“Who knows more...” Owen started.

“You’re going to call the Doctor?” Ianto asked. The undead physician closed his mouth sharply.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Jack said.

“But there’s no one else."

“Not that knows more about time, not any more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, for those of you who read this on another site, you will know this is as far as I got. Everything from here on out is new, so I might be posting a little slower. Please, comment, tell me what you think. Do they raise John, or does he go back to being himself?


	27. An unpleasant solution

John was still asleep and barely stirred when they stripped him and put him in his pajamas and popped in him the bed between them. They could have used the time alone, but until this situation was settled one way or another, Ianto knew they would have to make the best of it. Besides, they were both pretty close to exhausted and it took only minutes before Ianto had joined the little boy in sleep.

Jack woke in the middle of the night and checked his watch. It was 3:00 and there had been no alarms. He had actually managed to sleep a solid four hours without being plagued by dreams or nightmares, which was more or less a miracle in the current situation. He was still worried about John, not only the situation, but what he remembered. He decided he'd best go make that call.

 

The next day was one long blur, and Jack spent most of it chasing some rather unpleasant aliens around a tower block. By the time he returned, Ianto was busy with John, helping him get ready for bed. John was more or less conscious, but on enough pain killers to make his balance less than steady. Jack gave them both a quick kiss and went into his office and closed the door. They both knew what he was going to do, had been trying to all day. His attempt the night before had been interrupted by several weevils who had interrupted an underground rave (or visa versa, he wasn't completely sure). Worse, when he'd got back, John had woken from another nightmare, and with more of his memory.

When he came into the small room, Ianto could see that Jack was tired. "I left a message," he said, before Ianto could ask. "It's not like he has to worry about time..." _If he choses to help_ , they both thought but it was left unsaid.

"He's still sleepin', didn't even give me trouble in the bath, but...Jack, if we have to retcon..." he paused. This wasn't a conversation he'd ever seen himself having and there was no way to do it gently.

"If..Hopefully the Doctor will get the message. He's bound to know what to do, and if he doesn't, he'll think of something, otherwise..."

"Otherwise, if we can get it to work, we will have to retcon him and raise him ourselves," Ianto said, a little startled by the complete assurance in his voice. Jack opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, rather like a bemused carp. "No choice, really, can't risk his memory coming back, not to mention who knows what bits of his combat training will stay with him. Besides, he's not exactly a hundred percent human, is he?"

"You'd..." It was not often that Jack was struck dumb, but this was one, and Ianto was pretty sure that he shouldn't be enjoying it as much as he was.

"Who else? He's not keen on Gwen, Owen can barely take care of himself and I doubt that Tosh is up to it. Besides, my sister already thinks he's yours, so not that hard to explain..." Jack cut him off.

"Ianto, that's all the practicalities, but what about the rest? Do you really...commitment isn't something we've really talked about. Torchwood's not exactly a stable life...I guess what I'm asking is, are you sure you want this?"

Ianto thought about it for a moment. "Has there been anyone else since you came back?" he asked.

"What, other lovers?" Jack asked, startled and not sure at all of where he was going. "No...but..."

"When was the last time I slept anywhere but here?"

"The hotel...what?"

"My point is, we've never needed words. I'm the one you came home with, regardless of who you flirted with. In the end, it's actions, not words. You bringing me soup when I was sick last month..."

"You holding my hand when I come back, yeah. I get it, but this is big, you're still young and ..." There it was, the fear they never talked about, Jack's fear that he was stopping Ianto having the life he could.

"I'm old enough to have children you know, and I don't see me wantin' a life change soon. Jack, I've thought about it, pretty much since this happened. We all knew it was a possibility. You're a good father to him, like to think we can do a good job together."

"Can't do much worse than his parents did," Jack said.

"Yeah, the question is, who would John be if he'd been raised differently?"

"We may get to see, if not, we'll at least get our bed back," he said, looking at the lump under the covers. Jack laughed softly and moved over to his lover. "Think he's out for the count, why don't we go grab a bed down the corridor and I show you exactly how much I appreciate you?" he asked, leaning down to kiss the younger man.

"Baby monitor, on the list," Ianto said, distractedly, then rose into Jack's arms. "But I think you're right, for now. Come on, before I change me mind."

 

The two of them had finished their 'quality time', cleaned up, and were headed back to bed, when they heard a loud bang from the main Hub. "Check on John," Jack ordered, instantly on alert. Ianto nodded, and watched his lover head down the corridor, telling himself that it was just something else in the old building falling apart, something that he'd probably need to fix tomorrow. After all, there had been no alerts, no alarms.

Jack came out of the corridor onto the floor of the Hub. The problem with the old building was its noises. Myfanwy was still out, so it wasn't her bringing them back a 'treat', besides, he and Ianto had finally trained her out of it, he hoped. Looking around, he saw the lights were on in the conference room.

When he got to the door, he saw instantly what had woken him. "You know that will kill you, don't you?" Jack asked.

John Hart turned around and almost dropped the decanter of whiskey he had been trying to get down from the sideboard. Jack stepped around the source of the noise, the chair that John had used to turn on the lights, somehow succeeding in knocking it over onto the grate outside the doorway in the process. The immortal righted it as he came slowly into the room.

"Know that. Doesn't matter, though, does it?" the apparent little boy said. Jack looked into his eyes and shuddered at what he saw.

"You remember," Jack said, simple statement of fact.

"Not everything, not by a long shot, but enough to know what's happening, what's going to happen."

"Jack, John's..." Ianto called, rushing into the main body of the Hub. Jack turned and waved him up. John continued what he was doing, setting the decanter on the table near his booster seat.

"Hey, Eyecandy, wondered where you got to," John said as the young Welshman came to the doorway. If anything, hearing John Hart call him that with his childish lisp and familiar leer on the unfamiliar features was more disconcerting than ever, and from John, that took work.

"John, what are you planning?" Jack said, still standing next to the doorway, trying to look casual. John walked back to the sideboard and reached for a glass just barely in reach of his short arm. Ianto looked at Jack but the immortal shook his head once.

"You know," the boy said conversationally. "They always said this would kill me, well this or the drugs, possibly the sex. I'd always kind of planned for all of the above. Ah, well."

"John."

"Jack. I've always gone my own way. If I'm gonna go, 's gonna be on my terms. Not gonna' wait around, become some kind of droolin' vegetable. Was hoping to do this on my own, while you two were off shagging, but since it didn't work out that way, care to join me? One last drink for old time's sake? Think there's enough here for the two of you and for me to do what I need to."

"I could stop you, you know. I can't let you..."

"Let me what, Jack? Let me go? You did that already, or perhaps it was me that let you go. Eyecandy'll take care of you. Now, I'm going to ask you for something, the last thing I will ever ask of you. Let me do this."

"There is still a chance, John. I've called the Doctor. Surely he can do something. If not, maybe..."

"The Doctor, as in, 'the last of the Time Lords' Doctor? Damn, wish there was time to hear that story, but..."

"He's a friend, and he's bound to be able to help. If not, John, we can retcon you. I know it's not ideal, but maybe if we..."

"And if he can't, then what? Or if he's too late? And as much as I appreciate the offer, I don't think retcon will work, least not what you're using. It's framed for normal humans. I can't take the chance, Jack. You know what's going to happen. The longer I wait, the bigger the risk. Hell, could stroke out now, maybe not kill me, I can't...not like that." There was silence for several moments, as they all contemplated the implications of what was happening.

Finally Jack spoke. "I'll make you a deal," he said. His voice was quiet, calm, but Ianto could feel all the pain he was trying to keep back.

"Listening," John said.

"Give me two days. Owen can give you enough sedatives, maybe figure out something to slow down the progression. If I haven't heard from the Doctor by then, or we have no answers, we'll try the retcon. If that doesn't work, I'll sit down with you for that drink. I'll even pull out the good stuff." They all knew what he was promising, and Ianto for his part, didn't know what to say. He was trying to keep the lump in his throat from choking him. There was not going to be a good solution, not if the Doctor couldn't reverse it and the retcon didn't work, which John seemed to think it wouldn't.

"Two days? Your word?" The boy with eyes far too old for his face seemed to be seriously thinking on it. "And if something happens before then.  Would you?"  There was quiet, and Ianto knew this was a question Jack didn't want to answer.

"My word." John looked at him and held out a hand. Jack went over to him and shook it. It should have looked ridiculous, but it wasn't..

"So you would really raise me?" John asked. "Eyecandy, I didn't know you cared. Does this mean I can still sleep with you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm going to be honest here, the second part of this was one of the first part of the story I ever had in my mind. I have no idea what or why. Actually I had it written down in a notebook that I lost and I thought I would never recover it, but today for some reason I did. Please comment and let me know what you think.


	28. Options

Just after his arrival, Jack called Owen into his office and shut the door. Tosh and Gwen both looked to Ianto, but something on his face must have convinced them not to ask.

John Hart was still sleeping. Knowing he had at least some chunks of his memory back had almost made Ianto want to banish him back to the settee, but he couldn't, not after what had happened, or almost happened. They both knew John was scared, and covering as best he could. Besides, the miniature former time agent's efforts seemed to have sapped his remaining strength. By the time they crossed the floor of the Hub, he was weaving on his feet, and in the corridor, Ianto had scooped him up and carried him the rest of the way, just beating Jack to it. Their eyes met and he could see the haunted, hunted look on Jack's face. It didn't surprise him when he woke a few hours later to find his lover gone. He knew exactly where he was, out somewhere on the top of the highest roof he could find. It was where he went to think.

"I'll run some simulations, Jack," Owen was saying as he stepped out. "I'll need to go over the blood chemistry, see..." The dead doctor paused and the rest of the eyes turned to follow his look.

John was standing in the opening yawning and rubbing sleepily at his eyes, squinting as if the light was too much. "Oi, Eyecandy, can I get some..." The rest of whatever he was saying trailed off in a string of garbled syllables as a drop of blood trickled from his nose. 

Owen cursed and yelled for Jack. "Downstairs," the medic said, running for the autopsy suite. Ianto, being closer and quicker on the uptake, grabbed John before the boy could start to panic and rushed to follow, Jack meeting them at the door. Gwen and Tosh hurried to join them.

Ianto put him down on the table, while Owen grabbed a syringe. "Easy, half pint," he said. "Don't try to talk. It'll be all right in just a moment."

Jack put a hand on the boy's back, trying to be reassuring, but Ianto could see he was terrified for his oldest...whatever. The medic handed the captain a piece of gauze for the nosebleed and injected John quickly and efficiently. Whatever it was must have been fast acting because the pain and the panic started receding from John's eyes, and they began to droop.

Carefully, Jack helped lay him back, while Owen pulled a pillow and blanket from a cupboard and covered him up. "Aphasia of some kind or another. With multiple languages in his head, I can't tell how bad. He's sedated for now, which will help some, I hope. Leave him here, I'll keep an eye. I've got to run those tests..."

"Jack, what's..." Gwen started, but stopped at the looks. At least she knew when to stop, sometimes.

"Jack, whatever we come up with, we have to act _soon_. It's progressing fast. He's running out of time." The zombie turned his back on them. "Now, all of you, get out of here. I've got work to do," he growled harshly.

 

A few minutes later, and fortified with fresh mugs of coffee, Gwen, Tosh, Ianto and Jack gathered in the conference room. "Okay Jack, what's going on?" Gwen asked as kindly as she could manage. "Yesterday he was fine. I thought..."

"No, yesterday his memory started coming back, there is a difference. It's not coming back in little pieces either."

"Well that's good, isn't it?" the Welshwoman asked, confused. "Or..."

"Oh God!" Tosh exclaimed in horror as the enormity of the situation hit her. Ianto nodded. "He has the brain development and capacity of a four year old. Don't you see, Gwen, he's what? Forty, maybe fifty years old..."

"About twice that at least," Jack answered quietly.

"All those memories and a brain that can't handle it," Tosh explained. She and Gwen had both gone pale as the reality dawned on both of them.

"So, if we don't find a way..." Gwen began slowly.

"It's going to kill him," Jack confirmed.

Silence reigned for several minutes as the final members of the team tried to come to grip with the information. Ianto moved to stand next to Jack's chair. His partner was holding it together, barely.

"So, what are the options?" Gwen asked finally, opening her notebook. She always felt better when she could plan.

"Good question. Owen has him sedated. We thought there was more time. Tosh, any luck in figuring out..."

"I'm sorry, Jack," she said shaking her head. "I think I know _what_ happened, now, but ..." The Japanese tech gave him a miserable look. She hated not having the answers almost as much as she hated feeling like she was letting Jack down.

"It's okay, Tosh. It was a long shot anyway," he told her gently. "I've called an expert, but..."

"Your doctor?" Gwen asked.

"The Doctor," Tosh said almost simultaneously. "He _must_ be able to fix this." There was a certainty in her voice. Of course, she was the only member of the team, apart from Jack, who had ever met him.

"Maybe, if he gets here in time. But John is going downhill fast. Owen is looking into the feasibility of retconning him, but we don't know that it will work. So, other ideas, suggestions?" They all sat quietly, thinking.

"What about..." Gwen started, then stopped, shaking her head, and lapsing back into silence.

"I have an idea," Tosh said finally.  All attention turned to her. "What about the cryogenics system? It wouldn't cure him, but it would buy us some time."

Jack considered it carefully. "It's never been tested on anyone younger than Tommy," he said slowly.

"But..."

"We would have to figure out how to recalibrate it for him," Tosh said typing into her pad. They all knew that look, Ianto could practically see calculations flashing past her eyes.

"It could work," Ianto said, speaking for the first time. "Jack?"

"I think it might," the captain said slowly. "Tosh can you..."

"Already on it," she said, getting to her feet without taking her eyes off what she was inputting, as she headed for her workstation.

"Don't worry, Jack. We'll figure it out," Gwen said, rising. "I'm..."

The alarm began to blare, cutting her off, and causing Jack to start swearing in at least three languages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all who are still with me. It's been a long strange journey. If you happen to notice the similarity between this and the Donna situation...actually it's purely coincidental. I started to write this right after series two wound up, and after seeing Stolen Earth, I seriously considered changing it, except that the theory was sound, so...Please read, review, let me know what you think. 
> 
> The question still stands, Little!John, or Adult!John? Inquiring writers want to know :)


	29. New Arrival

Unfortunately, the alarm had not been what they were waiting for. Instead they had been called to a warehouse on the edge of town to deal with a group of...

"What are those?" Tosh asked.

"Ugly?" Ianto suggested. "Not seen anything like that running around the Plas of a Sunday. Good job they didn't want to stay." The aliens had, fortunately after a quick consultation with Jack, and some readings, disappeared back to hopefully where they came from.

"Not that you lot would notice," Jack said.

"What makes you think that?"

"This from the city that failed to notice they had elected a Slitheen to city government?"

"A what?" Gwen asked. She had not been with Torchwood back then.

"Merchant family, well for some values of the word 'merchant', natives of the planet Raxicoricofallipatorius," Jack said.

"That's never a real...Can't possibly be a proper place, and what do you mean..."

"Remember when the mayor disappeared? That suspicious earthquake?"

"That was...never... Are you saying..." Gwen sputtered. "Raxi--which?"

"Don't let's get started on that. It takes forever to learn to say it. Never going to forget that, are you?" Ianto asked Jack.

"Hey, do you have any idea the mess? Not to mention having to get out of town for two weeks.  Avoiding yourself is not as easy as it ought to be." They walked in from the garage arguing pleasantly with one another, and if things were perhaps a little forced, it was no real surprise. When they got to the Hub proper, though, Owen was standing in the opening. "What is it?" Jack said immediately, all business, on alert.

"No changes," Owen said. "The kid is still sedated. Jack, we need to talk." The dead man turned and led the way toward his boss's office. With a shrug, Jack followed, while Ianto went to make coffee. He was certain they were all going to need it. "Hey Ianto, best join us when you're done." That was more than a hint. If Owen was addressing him without snark, something was wrong. Gwen started to say something, but Tosh put a hand on her arm, and shook her head. The Japanese tech was much better with cues sometimes than Gwen, or at least she had a better sense of boundaries.

"Okay," Owen said as soon as Ianto joined them. "He's still sedated and I'm afraid I am going to have to keep him that way. I'm still working to see if we can formulate retcon for him, but it's going slow. If the Doctor doesn't show soon, or Tosh doesn't figure out how to recalibrate the cryo, we are going to have a problem."

"So, I'm sensing that you have an idea that I'm not going to like," Jack said carefully, leaning back in his chair, the mug of coffee between his hands, looking thoughtful.

"Pretty much. I was really hoping that whatever happened to him, when his memory started reversing, so would his body, but no such luck. The options at this point are pretty slim, but here goes. I can put him in a chemically induced coma. It's not ideal and frankly there is a measure of risk. You and Ianto are more or less what passes for his next of kin right now. Someone has to make a decision, and it should be you." Owen just looked at the two of them, clearly having had his say.

"Best get back to those tests on the retcon. We..." he paused and looked at Ianto. They all knew what it meant.

Owen just nodded and left the office, pulling the door closed behind him. "Don't even think about it, Gwen," he said as he walked across the Hub floor.

"But what..."

"This isn't your business, is it?" he said sharply at her. "Jack is what he has. He and Ianto need time to figure it out. Tosh, how are the recalibrations coming?" Owen had turned his back on her before she could do more than stand there gawping.

"I'm going to need some measurements," she said. "You sent me the blood chemistry, but there are a few..."

"Come on then. Not like he's going anywhere. At least this way he's not going to squirm." Tosh smiled a little feebly. The whole situation was taking its toll on them. Before this happened, none of them had particularly _liked_ John Hart, but he had grown on them. _Kind of like a fungus, or possibly some alien bacteria_ , she thought to herself as she headed to autopsy. Or rather that was the plan.

Once again the alarms began to blare. Jack and Ianto came running out of the office, as Gwen, the one closest to a workstation, called up the program that showed them what and where. Tosh had turned to her own station as well. "Looks like it's right on top of us," Gwen said, reading the information scrolling past. "Not a Rift spike though...it's...I don't know what this energy...."

"It's on the Plas," Tosh said, calling up the outside cameras and microphones. Jack froze. He heard it, music to his ears, the wheezy, groaning sound of the TARDIS landing above them. A huge smile lit the immortal's face.

"Look sharp everyone, we have company." In moments, the blue police box, so familiar to most of them from pictures had...well, landed wasn't the right word, more like it had just appeared in front of the tower. "Come on, let's go welcome our guest. We're going to have to take the other entrance though. He's parked on the lift again.  I've got to talk to him about that."

They all followed the Captain up through the tourist office, Ianto hurrying just a little as he'd gone for Jack's coat. Outside, it was interesting to note that the tourists, those wandering around taking pictures, seemed unable to see the big police box. Even knowing how the perception filter worked, it seemed odd that they could miss something that big and that out of place. Police boxes had not been common since before Ianto was born. They walked slowly towards it, Jack in the front, smiling as always, but there was something else there, a little nervousness, perhaps, about whether the man could or would help. After all, when you usually save entire planets, the life of one alien psychopath currently in the body of a toddler was kind of irrelevant. Ianto looked beside him. Gwen was looking both curious and slightly concerned. She hadn't been at Torchwood, specifically Torchwood One, so she didn't know the premium placed on meeting this particular alien. What she did know was that Jack had left them for him.  Owen was trying to look indifferent, Tosh was smiling. She was the only one of them who had actually met him before, though only briefly.   Still he had made an impression.

As for himself, Ianto Jones didn't know what to think. On the one hand, he had been in Torchwood Tower when the Doctor was there, had barely escaped the Cybermen and the Daleks, and only then because the keypad on the door to the area of the archives he had been working in had shorted out sometime in the fighting. It wasn't something he liked to think about. Then there was the last time the Doctor had come, he had taken Jack away, and returned him months later, a different man.

They stood together, waiting. "Not going to go knock then?" Gwen said after a couple of very tense and silent moments.

"Well, I could," Jack said. "I'm sure my key would probably still work, actually, now that the old girl has gotten used to me again, but it's better this..." He stopped as the door came open.

The Doctor was exactly as Ianto had remembered him from the footage on that day. Tall, thin to the point of skinny, brown suit, overcoat, thick framed glasses, and hair that looked like it hadn't seen the bristle side of a brush in an age. He pulled the door closed behind him and leaned against the box, looking them over appraisingly. "Captain," he said casually. Just one word.

"Doctor," Jack replied. Nothing could be made from either of their expressions. For what seemed like an eternity, the two men just stared at each other. Then the Doctor's face split into a warm smile and he moved towards him, while Jack reached out and embraced him. "Thank you for coming. This isn't exactly earth shattering, but..."

"Not at all, Jack. It's been quiet, and I've been meaning to stop by for a while, but you know, this and that. Do you still have that pterodactyl in the rafters you were telling me about? Going to introduce me to your team, then?" The man talked fast and had a manic energy that was almost contagious.

"Doctor, this is Gwen Cooper, she's my second in command," he said indicating the Welshwoman. "Toshiko Sato, I believe you met before."

"Yes, space pig. I've changed since then, though.  Good to see you again," he said, smiling at her and offering a hand. Tosh seemed to be at a loss for words, but managed to smile and stammer out a greeting.

"Owen Harper."

"Doctor Owen Harper," the dead man corrected.

"Yes, Doctor Owen Harper, he's our medic, and this is Ianto Jones."

"Ianto Jones. Jack spoke very highly of you," he said with a smile. "Of all of you, actually. But you, Mr. Jones, he said you were a god with coffee. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I don't suppose you are any good with tea? Come on then, show me this base of yours and tell me what's going on," he suggested, urging Jack a little ahead of him. "I don't know if you've noticed," the Doctor said quietly when they were several paces ahead of everyone else. "But your doctor is dead. Or is that why you called me?"

"Yes, and no. It's a long story. Best get inside and I'll explain everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a little longer to get out than I entended, but life wasn't cooperating. Please do those things, you know what to do. Thank you.


	30. The Doctor in the Hub

"Well, shall we deal with your emergency first?  Then you can give me the tour and explain everything," the Doctor said, casting the slightest glance towards Owen as they made their way into the Hub through the cog door.

"I would have shown you our invisible lift, but you parked the TARDIS on it," Jack commented as he let the Time Lord precede him.

"Invisible, you say?" the Doctor questioned as he looked around. "Perception filter?"

"Side effect of that..."

"Oh yes, of course. You put a lift under it? Ingenious. Actually it looks like..."

"This way, Doc," Jack said. He knew how easily the Time Lord could get distracted, especially here, and he would be perfectly willing to answer any and all questions, once they had dealt with John.

The small boy sedated on the autopsy table was definitely not what the Doctor had expected, but he said nothing. Instead, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and changed the settings as he went down the stairs. "Want to tell me who this is and what happened?"

"His name is John Hart. He is...well, he was a time agent and my partner at one time."

"Hmmuhmmm," the Doctor murmured for him to continue.

"He was helping us with some raiders, tried to use his vortex manipulator to collapse an active rift opening, against their technology," Jack said.

"Why did you..."

" _I_ didn't. John didn't actually tell me what he was planning."

"Yes, well, he's lucky he didn't blow himself up. Looks like the vortex manipulator backfired when it overloaded.  Instead of moving him through time, it caused time to run backwards on him, at least physiologically," the Doctor pronounced, checking his readings again.

"Yeah well, the question is, what do we do with him?" Owen asked. Understanding how it happened didn't really help their situation. "His body is aging normally, but his memory, that's starting to come back, and..."

"Cascading failure," the Doctor put in. "Jack, why didn't you call me sooner? This is going to be a bit tricky."

"Frankly, at first we weren't entirely sure what was happening. He seemed to be a normal little boy, had a few nightmares, the odd memory, but nothing too serious. Then this happened."

"We considered retcon, or the cryogenics," Owen said. "But that wouldn't fix anything, just buy us some time."

"All right. The good news is I think I can fix him. Do you have his vortex manipulator?"

"Yeah, I brought it back with me, but it's completely burned out."

"Get it. I'm thinking if we can get the reading off it..."

"You want to reverse the time field, but focused on him!" Tosh said excitedly. "But how will that work?"

Within a few minutes Ianto, Gwen, and Owen had all lost the conversation completely, though Jack was following and Tosh was enraptured as the Doctor was apparently lecturing her like a particularly bright pupil.

"Okay, so here is what we are going to need," the Doctor said. "Doctor Harper, do you happen to have medical readings on him from before this happened?"

"I do, yeah," Owen replied, glad to finally be included in the treatment of his patient. "I assume you want a complete set before and after? You'll want the latest brain activity as well, from before I had to sedate him?"

"Yes, hopefully there won't be any long term memory damage," the Doctor told them. "I'm going to need to bring the TARDIS down here, though, it will be easier."

"Hey, Doctor, my Hub is your Hub," Jack told him with a smile. "I'll get his strap. Is my stuff..."

"Still in your room," the Time Lord told him with a fond smile.

"Good, I think I left some tools there. Ianto, can you walk the Doctor out, so he can move his ship? Then we are going to need a couple things from the archives, I'll make a list. Tosh..."

"I'm already working on it, Jack. You need the exact rift modulation frequency from the moment the raiders reopened the vortex," she said distractedly as she headed for her work station. Owen was already working on the Doctor's request, cursing the broken fingers that slowed his typing.

"What about me, Jack?" Gwen asked, feeling distinctly left out, and not particularly happy about it.

"Gwen, you can order us some food. Doc? Chinese, Pizza, Indian? There's a kebab shop that delivers. We got a Hoix out of his freezer before it ate his entire stock, and he's been grateful ever since. "

"Oh anything is fine with me, I just came from a week on a space station out near the edge of the Jagra brigade, early thirtieth century, you know what the food is, Jack."

"All nutrient pellet. Make it Chinese. The usual order, with extra everything."

"And when I've done playing dinner lady?" she asked.

"Then I need you on the monitors. We can't afford not to. The last thing we need is something else going wrong. You might want to have Andy Davidson on standby," Jack told her. It didn't make her happy, but Jack had a point, and as much as she might dislike it, she had to admit, she wasn't any help with John. She wasn't even sure she understood what they were doing.

 

"This way, Sir," Ianto said formally, as soon as the Doctor finished conferring with Owen.

"Just the Doctor," he said with a smile, following him out. "So you are Ianto. Jack spoke very highly of you after..." the alien paused. "Well, the last time I saw him."

"Thank you," Ianto said as he led him out. The young Welshman wasn't entirely sure how to react to the Doctor. At Torchwood One, he'd been a mythic figure, somewhere between a God and a demon. To Jack, he was something of a mentor at the very least, though he wasn't certain the immortal wasn't in love with him. Of course, Jack had room for a lot of love in his heart. Ianto had learned that. It didn't stop him from being just a little nervous with the alien near.

"Care to come in?" the Doctor asked as he unlocked the door to the Police Box. "Quick hop, just take a second, well, maybe two. Faster than walking." He swung the door open. For a moment, Ianto just stood there and stared. No matter how many stories he had heard, it was nothing like the reality. "Come on." The Time Lord inclined his head. Ianto stepped through the door before he was even aware he had moved. "Welcome to the TARDIS, maybe when this is over, you can have a tour. Ianto Jones. I don't suppose you are related to a Doctor Clifford Jones are you? I think he was Cardiff born. That would be quite a coincidence."

"He's my dad's cousin," Ianto said, surprised by the question, though why should he be? After all, the Doctor knew a lot of scientists. "We never had anything to do with that said of the family, though," he told him vaguely. He was never comfortable talking about his family.

"Really? His wife Jo, it was Grant back then, was my assistant when I was with UNIT, before her marriage. I should look them up," he said as he moved around the center console like a toddler on a sugar high. "Hold on. These short hops can be rough sometimes, especially this close to the rift." The Doctor pulled a lever, and everything shuddered. Ianto grabbed the rail, hearing up close the strange, unearthly wheezing, and then it and they stopped. "There, all out then," he said. The Doctor flipped another switch and the doors opened.

Instantly Jack was inside, patting the central console. "Hello, beautiful," he said fondly.

"Oi, stop flirting with my ship," the Doctor said, but there was a note of familiarity, as if this was an old joke.

"I'm just saying hello." As if the ship understood, the lights dimmed and brightened. "Ianto, I see he talked you aboard. Better not be trying to steal him, Doctor."

"Not at all, though perhaps a trip? When we are done. Anyway, to work."

"Here's the list, Ianto," Jack said, handing him the paper. He turned and headed out the door towards the archives, as Gwen poked her head into the door cautiously.

"Orders in, Jack... That's never...How?"

"She's dimensionally transcendental," the Doctor said.

"What..."

"Bigger on the inside," Tosh explained as she, too came over and peered inside. "The inside is in a different dimension from the outside."

"Excellent, Doctor Sato, absolutely top of the class." The Doctor beamed at her. "Well, come on in. Do you have those frequencies for me?" Tosh blushed prettily and hurried up the ramp with her pad in her arms. Gwen just stayed where she was. She wasn't entirely certain what she should do.

"You too, in you come. Jack, I think your room is down the corridor, third right, left at the kitchen, second door on the right, assuming she hasn't moved it again."

"Thanks." The two women watched as their captain went through an inner door and disappeared.

"Now, Doctor Sato..."

"Tosh, please," she said.

"Tosh then, about those readings..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.


	31. Reversal

When Ianto returned from the archives with his burdens, it was to find the main floor of the Hub had turned into barely controlled chaos. Several cables were snaking out of the Doctor's ship, and as he stepped closer, he could hear the Time Lord shouting orders. "Gwen, yes, just take that and give it to Jack."

Jack had cleared a surface in the room they used for examining alien tech. He had John Hart's burnt out vortex manipulator, apparently disassembled or at least partially, on the table in front of him, working on it with a couple of small tools that Ianto had never seen before. He made straight for his lover.

Jack looked up when he heard him approach. "Thanks," he said, taking two of the pieces.

"I thought that was damaged beyond repair," Ianto said of one of them.

"It is, but some of the components are still useful. Take that to the Doctor, and those to Tosh. Then, could I please get some coffee?"

"Was just thinking it was that time. Food will be soon as well."

"Ummm," Jack agreed distractedly as he was already stripping down the one piece of alien tech. "When you are done," He said as Ianto turned to leave. "I could use an extra hand. It's work of the 'hold this here' kind, but..."

"If it'll get John Hart mended and out of our bed, I'm all for it."

He passed out the other things and retreated to the coffee station. For the first time, Ianto was starting to think that everything might actually work out. John Hart had scared him at last night more than he would care to admit. _It's a sad state of affairs,_ he thought, _when I'm worried about the little psychopath_. But part of him couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if they raised him. Who would he be? If anything, this situation had brought up questions Ianto thought he would never be asking.

After making his coffee (and in the Doctor's case, tea) delivery, he'd returned to Jack. The Captain had been genuine in his assessment. He needed an extra hand or two, holding things while he poked them with unfamiliar tools, punctuated by checking readings on his own strap and occasionally calling out strings of numbers, or listening to them.

Once she had brought the food down and they had taken a quick break to eat, ("make sure you save some for the patient, the conversion is going to use a lot of energy,"), even Gwen had gotten something to contribute besides watching the monitors. She was keeping an eye on the program that Tosh was running and relaying the readings to the Japanese scientist where she was in Autopsy with Owen.

Almost as quickly as it started, all the activity stopped with a last curse from Jack as he burned himself with some kind of pinpoint torch.

"That got it Jack?" the Doctor said, sticking his head out.

"Yes. Hopefully it will hold long enough to get him to his correct age, or close enough not to matter. Ianto, could you get his clothes? He's going to need them. Let's get set up." There was something in his voice that gave Ianto a moment's worry, but he put it down to worry about what they were doing.

When he returned, it was to find his lover and the Time Lord both in Autopsy arguing loudly while Gwen, Owen, and Tosh just watched.

"Doc, I couldn't fix the timer, I'm going to have to do it manually. There is just no other choice. Besides, what's another hundred years, more or less?"

"I could say the same, you know."

"You could, except for two things," Jack told him. "First, you need to be on the controls. No one knows as much about temporal manipulation as you do."

"What's the other?" the Doctor asked, still clearly not buying his argument.

"If something goes wrong, it will just kill me. But you would go through a regeneration and John doesn't have that kind of time. Besides, he's my responsibility." The Time Lord looked at him. Then he nodded. "Okay, Ianto, give me a hand getting John undressed. Tosh, double check the rift program, then I want all of you with the Doctor, on the TARDIS."

There was a brief babble of dessent, halted by the Doctor. "He's right. We aren't expecting an explosion or anything like that, but working with time and rift instability, you never know what will happen. The TARDIS is shielded against....Well, everything, actually. I mean there was that incident with the _Titanic_ , but really, the shielding was a little flaky at the time. The collected hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get in, and believe me, they've tried. Come on," the Time Lord ushered the rest of the team along.

"Help me with him?" Jack said, lifting the small, unconscious body into a sitting position.  "One thing my back won't miss," Jack said, trying to keep it light. "I may heal quickly, but it doesn't stop hauling a toddler around from being hard on the back in the short term."

"Jack, are you sure about this?" Ianto asked, taking the little clothes and folding them before tucking a blanket around John. Jack didn't answer for a moment, waiting for his partner to finish, and look at him.

"Not one hundred percent, maybe. But I have complete faith in the Doctor, and I can't not do anything and let John die." Ianto nodded. It didn't make it any easier to hear. Jack reached out and pulled him close for a kiss. "Now, you go get into the TARDIS. With a little luck, tonight we can have our bed back."

Ianto nodded and left Jack standing next to the autopsy table, John's wrist strap in one hand, looking after him. When Ianto got to the time ship, everyone was already there. Owen was gawping, Tosh had taken a seat on the odd looking settee with her tablet, and Gwen was trying to figure out what to do with herself. "All right, Mr. Jones? Good. Jack?" he asked. A screen showed the inside of the bay and Jack.

"Here, ready when you are."

"Okay, here goes. Tosh?"

"Frequency modulation set, rift activation in 3, 2, 1."

"See you in Hell," Jack said with a cocky smile as he pushed the button For a moment, it looked like nothing was happening. Then, like a film speeding up, John Hart started to grow and age.

"Readings are holding..." Tosh said. "Jack, your power regulator is fluctuating though, I'm not..."

"Almost," Jack said. "Just a little longer, and we..."

"Jack?" They watched as the strap sparked and burst into flames. Ianto was out of the TARDIS and across the floor before anyone could stop him.

The autopsy bay was filled with the acrid smell of burning electronics, but Jack was still standing, coughing a little. "Jack?"

"I think this thing is now completely trash," he said, tossing the remains of the strap down on an instrument tray.

"And John Hart?" Owen was coming through the doorway.

"Let me see the patient," he said.

"Close enough," Jack told them, everyone else was filing in behind them. "Plus or minus a decade." He shrugged. "Age with a time agent is a little vague anyway."

"Scans look good," Owen said. "Says he's 87 years, 8 months."

"So he's lost about twelve years, I think. He'll be thrilled," Jack commented.

"Owwwwww, my head," John Hart groaned. "If it hurts this bad, I'd better have had a hell of a time."

 

"Jack," the Doctor said. Owen was busy running John Hart through a battery of physiological tests.

"Just checking that there's no more brain damage than there already was," the dead man said, when he told the rest of them to bugger off.

Ianto had gone to put the equipment back in the archives, Tosh was at her workstation running several analyses, diagnostics, and at least one simulation to figure out exactly what they had done, and Gwen was calling Rhys, who deserved to be there at the end and was picking up pizza for them at any rate.

"Doctor, thank you. You have no idea how..."

"We-eelll, Jack, you know. After..." he stopped. The two men hadn't discussed that year, the one that never happened or what it had meant to either of them. When the Doctor had come from burning the body of the only other Time Lord in the Universe, Jack had been there in the TARDIS kitchen with a bottle of brandy from a small planet out on the edge of Tellurian space, two glasses, and no questions.

On the other hand, when Jack woke with nightmares about what had happened to him on the lower level of the _Valiant_ , the Doctor always seemed to be in the kitchen. "Just making a cuppa, Jack, want one?" It had left its mark and a bond born of knowing. They hadn't needed to talk, both understood.

"But," the Doctor said, taking both of their minds away from those dark places. "Why don't you introduce me to that pterodactyl, and tell me how you ended up with a dead man on your team."

 

The Doctor threw another fish for the happily diving reptile. "The gauntlet?" he asked, not looking at the Immortal.

"The first one was destroyed. The knife and the second one are in the archives. Do you know..."

"Something that was never meant to be here," the Time Lord said, gravely turning to face him. "You're just very lucky, if it had been anyone else..."

"Doctor, I couldn't..." But the Time Lord held up a hand.

"I know, Jack, it was still ridiculously dangerous. I can fix him..."

"Doctor, that would be..."

"Hold on, Jack. Hear me out. Right now, Owen is neither one thing nor another. I can get him all the way through, if he wants it, but only this time."

"Yes, it's just..."

"That's not all," he said. "You'll give me the gauntlet and the knife."

"Give..."

"They are too dangerous to be here, and one day, Jack, you won't be here to prevent them being used." The immortal was silent for a long moment and then he nodded.

"Good, now..." Myfanwy wheeled and swept low around the tower.

"Oi, dowsy reptile," Rhys cried out. "No pizza 'til the rest of us have eaten."

"Pizza?" the Doctor asked looking at Jack.

He shrugged. "She's spoiled? Better get downstairs. Ianto's going to have a fit when he finds out Rhys has been feeding her again."

 

Dinner turned into a rowdy affair. John Hart, after some headache tablets, and a shower was up and on his feet, and eating like he hadn't done in a month. But that wasn't all they had to celebrate.

Gwen set the pizzas out on the conference table, watching Jack have a quick consultation with Ianto. The younger man reappeared as they were sitting down, with a parcel wrapped in brown paper, which he gave to the Doctor. The Time Lord then disappeared. Gwen made a note to ask what that was all about later, and instead passed out the plates.

"Where's the Doctor?" Tosh asked as she came in.

"He'll be here, just had to do a little something," Jack said. The tech nodded and took her place, thinking she could ask all the questions she wanted to when he arrived. Or so she thought. When he walked through the door with Owen, an Owen holding up his no longer broken hand, all other thoughts fled.

"Owen, the Doctor fixed your hand?" Gwen asked, surprised.

"Bit more than my hand," the doctor said. Tosh stood as the reality filtered in. Owen grabbed her in a big hug, her being nearest. "Better have saved me some of that pizza. I haven't eaten in about seven months. I'm starved."

 

The party had finally wound down around 2:00 am. The Doctor offered a spare bed in the TARDIS to anyone who didn't want to drive home. "Better than those cells you call rooms," he had said.

Tosh and Owen had both taken him up on them, or rather, Tosh had taken him up on it, and Owen, who seemed to have started seeing the tech in a new light, went along. "Not like I've got anyplace to be. Actually I'm looking forward to sleep."

Rhys and Gwen had gone home, and Ianto had gone down to the lower level to feed the fish, while Jack was putting the Hub into night mode when he saw John. "Where's Eyecandy?"

"A couple of last minute chores. How are you feeling?"

"Better," John said quietly. Jack turned around. John was looking serious. "I remember everything, you know."

"Is that a good thing?" the immortal asked.

"I'm not sure yet. But I know what you and Eyecandy did, what you were willing to do for me. Can't say I would do the same, but thank you."

"John..." he started, but the other man just shrugged.

"I'm not good at this stuff. I'd offer thank you sex, but for some reason that seems wrong at the moment. I must still be recovering. Goodnight, Jack."

"Goodnight, John," he said, turning back to the computer. John was back to himself, and all was right with the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Glad you have been with me for the journey.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I am just getting around to cleaning out and posting old stuff. Also it encourages me to try to finish some of it. Please enjoy, and if you like it, or if you don't, comment. It helps.


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